Is It Necessary to Terminate Pregnancy before Hydatid Cyst Surgery?4

Abstract

Hydatid cyst is a rare phenomenon that occurs in about 1/20000- 1/30000 of pregnancies (1). It ap- pears at the larval stage of Echinococ- cus multilocularis or E. granulosus. There is, how- ever, no standard treatment during pregnancy. Hydatid cyst disease is life-threatening for the mother /fetus (1). It is diagnosed during preg- nancy by serological testing and ultrasonogra- phy. Clinical manifestations of the disease de- pend on the size and location of cysts. Treat- ment modalities are surgery and drug therapy. Surgery is the choice treatment for compli- cated hydatid cyst but replacement rate may be widely variable. Medicinal treatment with albendazole is prescribed for non-pregnant and asymptomatic patients, which may take several years to yield results