THERAPEUTIC APPROACH OF COMPLICATED HYDATID DISEASE: ROLE OF ENDOSCOPIC RETROGRADE CHOLANGIOPANCREATOGRAPHY IN CHOLANGIOHYDATIDOSIS

BACKGROUND: Hydatid disease, a parasitic infestation caused by Echinococcus granulosus larvae, is an infectious disease endemic in different areas, such as India, Australia, and South America. The liver is well known as the organ most commonly affected by hydatid disease and may present a wide variety of complications such as hepatothoracic hydatid transit, cyst superinfection, intra-abdominal dissemination, and communication of the biliary cyst with extravasation of parasitic material into the bile duct, also called cholangiohydatidosis. Humans are considered an intermediate host, exposed to these larvae by hand-to-mouth contamination of the feces of infected dogs. AIM: This study aimed to highlight the role of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in patients with acute cholangitis secondary to cholangiohydatidosis. METHODS: Considering the imaging findings in a 36-year-old female patient with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showing a complex cystic lesion in liver segment VI, with multiple internal vesicles and a wall defect cyst that communicates with the intrahepatic biliary tree, endoscopic biliary drainage was performed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with papillotomy, leading to the discharge of multiple obstructive cysts and hydatid sand from the main bile duct. RESULTS: Clinical and laboratory findings improved after drainage, with hospital discharge under oral antiparasitic treatment before complete surgical resection of the hepatic hydatid cyst. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is a safe and useful method for the treatment of biliary complications of hepatic hydatid disease and should be considered the first-line procedure for biliary drainage in cases of cholangiohydatid disease involving secondary acute cholangitis.