Chinese man infected with parasitic flatworm after eating undercooked fish, loses half his liver

New Delhi: Doctors at China’s Hangzhou First People’s Hospital had to operate and remove half the liver of a 55-year-old Chinese man, after they found that several tumor-like structures and a huge puss ball around his liver from infection caused by parasitic flatworm.

Referred to as Master Xie in hospital records, the person had come to Hangzhou First People’s Hospital complaining loss of appetite, abdominal pain, fatigue and diarrhea.

Xie, hailing from Sichuan, has been working in Hangzhou for over a decade. At the end of last year, he visited his ailing father in his hometown for a while because of his father's illness. After returning, Xie developed the above uneasiness. After four months, when he saw that his condition was not improving, he visited the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Hangzhou First People's Hospital.

Upon examination, doctors found that Xie’s left liver had turned into a large pus ball measuring 19cm×18cm×12cm in size. A CT examination confirmed that there were many tumor-like structures on the wall of the liver abscess. The doctors drained out pus ball, but re-examination showed the the tumours remain unchanged. It was then that the doctors decided to perform surgery on the Xie and were shocked to find that those wer covered with bulb-shaped, thick-shelled Clonorchis sinensis eggs.

Master Xie then recalled that he had eaten sauerkraut fish, a Chinese delicacy made of raw fish. Reportedly, a lot of people suffer from infection caused by parasitic flatworm known as Chinese liver flukes in Xie’s hometown area. It is believed that eating this delicacy made from raw fish is the reason behind several cases of liver flukes in the ara where the fish fillets are eaten raw or half-raw.

The liver fluke shows no early stage of infection, and hence it is practically impossible to find out with patients affected in the earl stage. The worm can lay 1,400 to 2,000 eggs each time, and can survive for 20 to 30 years in the body. If left untreated, they can settle in the liver, and begin to eat the liver gradually.