Three case reports published in Cureus recently made the news. Here is a short summary of each news story, with links to the full coverage and the case report.
A patient coughed up a live leech, and the severe bleeding stopped
A 56-year-old patient with severe hemoptysis, or coughing up blood, expelled a live leech about 5 cm long on his second day in the hospital, and the bleeding stopped immediately.
He had been admitted with that bleeding, a hoarse voice, and mild shortness of breath after recent exposure to untreated freshwater. A computed tomography (CT) scan suggested bleeding in the lungs, and a bronchoscopy (a camera exam of the airway) after the leech came out showed a normal airway. He had no recurrence at three months. The case report describes the infestation as probable.
SBS News, a South Korean broadcaster, covered the case on Aug. 22, four days after its publication in Cureus.
Its report credits the research team at Mohammed VI University Hospital in Agadir, Morocco, and relays the team's advice to consider bronchial leech infestation in patients with unexplained severe hemoptysis and a history of untreated freshwater exposure.
Rainwater trapped in a shoe led to a limb-threatening infection
Stagnant rainwater that entered a closed shoe led to a necrotizing soft-tissue infection and sepsis in a 68-year-old man with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes.
His symptoms began later that day and worsened over the next five days. Cultures taken during surgery grew Aeromonas hydrophila, a bacterium found in freshwater, and a bone biopsy showed acute osteomyelitis, a bone infection, in the heel. He was treated with surgical debridement (removal of dead tissue) and a six-week antibiotic course.
The case report was published in Cureus on Sept. 13, and the South Korean health news site Health Chosun covered it on Sept. 15.
Read the Aeromonas case report.
Rice-grain calcifications on leg X-rays showed an old infection
Leg X-rays of an 85-year-old man with muscle pain disproportionate to his viral infection showed rice-grain calcifications running along the muscle fibers.
He was hospitalized with a viral respiratory infection, and the calcifications matched his known history of cysticercosis, an infection with the pork tapeworm Taenia solium. The pattern showed chronic, inactive disease, which avoided unnecessary tests and antiparasitic treatment. His pain resolved within a week with paracetamol alone.
The case report was published in Cureus on Sept. 21, and Health Chosun covered it on Sept. 26.
Read the cysticercosis case report.
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