Abstract
The authors recall the chemoprophylaxis of helminthiasis from a case of intestinal obstruction due to roundworms. Unfortunately, in tropical countries, young patients continue to have heavy surgery related to this aetiology.
It is not a plate of spaghetti. It is a picture of 237 roundworms that we extracted from the intestines of a young patient of twelve years old, who had undergone a laparotomy for intestinal obstruction at our Department of Surgery and Surgical Specialties at the Provincial Hospital of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (HPGRB) (Figure 1).
237 roundworms (Ascaris lumbricoides)
Surgical complications of ascaridiasis have long been known. However, they should not still been seen in this day and age. A prescription of Mebendazole, 200 mg daily for three days every three or six months, can eradicate the carriers of most worms, even Ascaris lumbricoides.
Surgeons who work in tropical countries are advised to consider the possibility of a roundworm package when they are dealing with a diagnosis in a child of bowel obstruction without any precise aetiology. Also, in tropical zones, all patients who have an enterotomy should receive an antihelminthic drug as soon as possible in order to avoid peritonitis due to the wandering of certain intestinal worms.