The person who cut the liver, who thought the cancer had metastasized, but the unexpected reason came from the habit of eating delicious vegetables

Hepatectomy because he thought he had a malignant tumor

Recently, the Ministry of Health has issued Guidelines for the treatment and prevention of fascioliasis, it is worth mentioning that the cause of this disease is people’s eating habits. In particular, many people, when attacked by a large liver fluke, are mistaken, even many people have their livers cut off, thinking of death because they think they have cancer.

TS.BS Tran Huy Tho – Deputy Director of Dang Van Ngu Hospital (National Institute of Malaria-Parasites-Entomology) said that liver fluke infections are very common among patients who come for examination and treatment at the hospital. hospital. It is worth mentioning that there are cases that have been treated everywhere, and even had surgery to remove a quarter of the liver to find out that they were infected with flukes.

That is the case of a male patient from Thanh Hoa, who had previously visited many places and was diagnosed with a tumor in the liver. Because he thought he had a malignant tumor, the patient had surgery to remove 1/4 of his liver.

Dr. Tho said that in many cases, one near the liver was removed, and the brain surgery was done because of confusion with the tumor. Photo: Le Phuong.

Specifically, this case has a liver lesion with a size of 3.1cm x 4.8cm, with liver hilar nodes, pancreatic head, and large lymph nodes with a diameter of 0.5cm. The patient underwent an enlarged left lobe, gallbladder, and lymph node dissection in the hepatic peduncle.

After the pathology, the doctor concluded that the patient’s liver had an abscess due to parasites, thinking a lot about liver flukes or toxocara. After that, the patient was transferred to the Central Institute of Malaria-Parasitology-Entomology for treatment. After some time, the patient improved well and was discharged.

Prepare for the aftermath because you think cancer but don’t know that the disease comes from eating habits

Another case also received and treated by Dr. Tho is a female patient named NTTH (in Quang Binh). After showing signs of anorexia, fatigue, and continuous weight loss, her family took her to the doctor and was diagnosed with liver cancer.

Not believing this result, Ms. H continued to visit Hanoi at the last-line hospital and also concluded that she had bile cancer, metastasized to the liver, and had no chance of survival with treatment.

The patient shared with the doctor that at that time, her spirit was broken and she called her relatives to advise and take care of the afterlife. However, 6 months later, Mrs. H still only showed signs of fatigue and weight loss, so she continued to visit Hanoi again. At Bach Mai Hospital, tests showed that Ms. H’s white blood cell count was high (while suffering from cancer, it was decreased). Through some other tests, the doctors suspected that she had a parasitic disease and sent her to the hospital.

TS.BS Tran Huy Tho shared, when admitted to the hospital, even though the patient was mentally depressed, outside observations the doctors all agreed that, if the patient really had cancer that had metastasized to the liver, it was in the final stage. You can’t have that kind of health.

Image of fluke nesting but often mistaken for a tumor. Photo: BSCC.

The results after doing intensive tests showed that the patient was positive for liver fluke, the lesions in the liver were caused by the nesting fluke. Immediately after, the patient was treated according to the regimen and the situation progressed very positively.

In particular, in the process of taking the medical history, especially the eating habits, patient H said that she and her family regularly eat aquatic vegetables such as water spinach, watercress, especially with the habit of drinking water. used to eat raw vegetables such as split water spinach, cilantro… “Maybe I accidentally ate vegetables containing liver fluke larvae, so I got sick,” Mrs. H shared with the doctor.

Aquatic vegetables are loved by many people but can be a source of liver fluke disease.

Many vegetables are at risk of being contaminated with pathogens

TS.BS Huy Tho said that aquatic vegetables are often infected with large liver fluke cysts. This fluke cyst enters the stomach through food, then breaks down and releases larvae, the larvae penetrate the duodenal wall into the abdomen and then move to the liver.

The larvae will grow and develop in the liver to secrete toxic substances that destroy the liver parenchyma, causing liver abscess. Therefore, when patients go to the doctor with liver damage, it is easy to be misdiagnosed as liver cancer.

Symptoms of liver fluke infection are fatigue, mild pain in the lower ribs, dull abdominal pain of unknown location, enlarged and painful liver. Some cases have digestive disorders, skin allergies, papules on thighs, buttocks, back, itching, discomfort …

The best way to prevent liver fluke disease is to eat cooked and boiled. Do not eat rare foods, raw vegetables, especially aquatic vegetables such as cilantro, water spinach, spinach, celery, watercress, lotus root… Should wash hands after going to the toilet, before going to the toilet. prepare food, before eating. Absolutely do not drink plain water, water from rivers, streams, lakes…