Morbi mortality of pulmonary hydatid cyst in children

Abstract

Method: Hydatid disease is a worldwide health problem. Children are frequently infested by the cyst in endemic countries. Surgery is the treatment of choice.

Method: This is a retrospective analytic and descriptive study of the morbi-mortality of pulmonary hydatid cyst for 75 children operated in our department between january 2010 and september 2019 .

Method: During the study period, 700 adults and 75 children were operated for hydatid cyst. There were 28 girls and 47 boys. The average age was 11 years. The cyst was localised in the right lung in 27 cases , in the left lung in 47 cases, and in both sides in one case. 42 children had a complicated cyst and 33 had a non complicated one. 67 children had cystectomy and capitonnage. Only 7 children had a lobectomy, and just one had a segmentectomy. Videoassisted thoracic surgery was performed in 24 cases. There were 3 cases of post operative complications consisting on pneumothorax, fever and hematoma. There were 41 cases of post operative complications for the 700 adults operated in the same period. There is no significant difference of morbi mortality between children and adult (p=0.3). We didn’t found a correlation between the morbidity and the nature of the cyst complicated versus none complicated (p=0.6). We also studied the morbidity depending on the surgical treatment (lobectomy and segmentectomy vs cystectomy ) but there is no significant difference( p=0.2).

Method: Surgery remains the only effective treatment in pulmonary hydatid cyst even in childhood. Morbi-mortality is low especially with the development of minimally invasive techniques. However, prophylactic measures are essential to interrupt the parasite’s life cycle.