Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2016; 22(19): 4776-4780
Published online May 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i19.4776
Endoscopic resection of sparganosis presenting as colon submucosal tumor: A case report
Joong Keun Kim, Dong Hoon Baek, Bong Eun Lee, Gwang Ha Kim, Geun Am Song, Do Youn Park
Joong Keun Kim, Dong Hoon Baek, Bong Eun Lee, Gwang Ha Kim, Geun Am Song, Division of Gastroenterology, Departments of Internal Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 305 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 602-739, South Korea
Do Youn Park, Department of Pathology, Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan 602-739, South Korea
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the acquisition of data, writing, and revision of this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This case report was exempt from the Institutional Review Board standards at Pusan National University in South Korea.
Informed consent statement: The patient involved in this study gave his written informed consent authorizing use and disclosure of his protected health information.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interests related to this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dong Hoon Baek, MD, Division of Gastroenterology, Departments of Internal Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, 305 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 602-739, South Korea. dhbeak@naver.com
Telephone: +82-51-2407869 Fax: +82-51-2448180
Received: December 15, 2015
Peer-review started: December 16, 2015
First decision: December 30, 2015
Revised: February 2, 2016
Accepted: March 1, 2016
Article in press: March 1, 2016
Published online: May 21, 2016
Processing time: 154 Days and 15.2 Hours
Abstract

Human sparganosis is a rare parasitic disease caused by infection with the tapeworm Sparganum, the migrating plerocercoid (second stage) larva of Spirometra species. Sparganosis usually involves subcutaneous tissues and/or muscles of various parts of the body, but involvement of other sites such as the brain, eye, peritoneopleural cavity, urinary track, scrotum, and abdominal viscera has also been documented. Infections caused by sparganum have a worldwide distribution but are most common in Southeast Asia such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Rectal sparganosis is an uncommon disease but should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unusual and suspicious rectal submucosal tumors. We report a case of rectal sparganosis presenting as rectal submucosal tumor. We performed endoscopic submucosal dissection of the rectal submucosal tumor. The sparganosis was confirmed based on the presence of calcospherules in the submucosal layer on histological examination. Moreover, the result of the immunoglobulin G antibody test for sparganosis was positive but became negative after endoscopic submucosal dissection. Though rare, rectal sparganosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of rectal submucosal tumor-like lesions. This case suggests that physicians should make effort to exclude sparganosis through careful diagnostic approaches, including detailed history taking and serological tests for parasites. In this report, we aimed to highlight the clinical presentation of Sparganum infection as a rectal submucosal tumor.

Keywords: Rectum; Submucosal tumor; Sparganosis; Sparganum; Parasite disease

Core tip: This rare case exhibited the rectal sparganosis presenting as rectal submucosal tumor. This is the first case of rectal sparganosis presenting as submucosal tumor that are treated with endoscopic submucosal dissection. Though rare, this case suggests that sparganosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of submucosal tumor-like lesions in gastrointestinal track.