Physical Wellness

Tapeworm Removed From Man's Mouth In India

By Anne Collins | Update Date: Jan 30, 2017 07:10 AM EST

Doctors in India removed a 6-feet-long tapeworm through a patient's mouth. The report was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The 48-year-old man was complaining about abdominal pain for two months and his test results showed low hemoglobin in his blood. According to CNN, the man underwent colonoscopy with Dr. Cyriac Phillips in 2014. Phillips discovered a small part of the tapeworm and was able to confirm infestation in the patient.

After the discovery, the man went through a procedure called endoscopy, where a camera was inserted into his stomach to view the intestines. 

A team of physicians from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences Hospital in New Delhi sedated the man and was able to successfully extract the worm. They carefully pulled the lengthy worm through the patient's mouth using a pair of forceps and finished the job in under two hours. 

Fox31 Denver reported the tapeworm measured 6.1 feet and classified as a pork tapeworm or the Taenia solium. A fully grown tapeworm measures between 6.5 to 23 feet in length, but there was a previous case that reported the specimen was more than 26 feet long.

The doctors prescribed medication to treat parasitic worm infections called praziquantel. It can kill any eggs or larvae that the tapeworm may have potentially left in the intestines. The man and his family were all advised to take deworming medication for six months.

The man was also advised to cook pork well at home and avoid eating at places with poor sanitation. The infestation may have been due to a potential food contamination.

His diagnosis was called cysticercosis, a tapeworm infection contracted by ingesting tapeworm eggs through contaminated food and drinking water.

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