Enterobius vermicularis in appendectomy specimens; Clinicopathological assessment: Cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: This study identifies the incidence of appendiceal Enterobius vermicularis (E.v) infestation in all the patients undergoing appendectomy and evaluates the relationship between E. v infestation of the appendix and the acute appendicitis. METHOD: ology: All the routinely examined appendectomy specimens received in the pathology laboratory of a referral hospital over a three year period of time were reviewed for the existence of E. v. These cases were evaluated for clinico-laboratory characterization. RESULTS: Out of 1150 appendectomies for clinical acute appendicitis picture, 31 (2.7%) cases revealed E. v infestation. The age ranged from 6 to 42 years old but more than 80% of the E. v infected cases were children. Twenty four cases (77.4%) did not show any other appendiceal pathology, six cases showed lymphoid hyperplasia and only one case showed concomitant histological acute inflammatory process. CONCLUSION: E. v infestation is an incidental finding during histopathology examination of appendectomy specimens for patients with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis, however there is no relation between the existence of E. v and occurrence of acute appendicitis which is the main indication for appendectomy, so further studies are recommended to reach out earlier diagnosis to eliminate the unnecessary surgical intervention. Also surgeons should consider E. v as a differential diagnosis when removing a normal looking appendix to take the necessary precautions for minimizing any chance of contamination and sending all the normal looking appendectomy specimens for histopathology examination.