Russian surgeons made an unexpected discovery during an operation to remove a suspected tumor from the patient’s face
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Doctors have removed a 12cm worm from a woman’s cheek after she was bitten by a mosquito, Moscow Region’s healthcare ministry reported on Thursday. The surgeon who operated on the patient said it was the first time he’d seen such a case in his 10-year career.
The 51-year-old woman presented at a hospital in the town of Lyubertsy, near the Russian capital, complaining of swelling and itching in the cheek area. Following an examination, doctors suspected that the patient had a benign tumor and decided to remove it.
“After making an incision under local anesthesia, we found the head of a worm in the thickness of the crack. There was a capsule with a worm,” said Sergey Grevtsev, head of the department of maxillofacial surgery.
The doctor explained that an inflammatory process developed inside the woman’s cheek because of the worm’s activity, causing itching as a result.
© mz.mosreg.ru
“We removed the capsule from the cheek and pulled out a 12cm-long worm,” Grevtsev said, adding that it was the first such case he’d seen in a decade of surgical practice.
Apparently, the parasite had ended up in the woman’s cheek after she was bitten by a mosquito infected with helminthiasis. Pets can also carry this infection, the health ministry said in a press release.
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