Caracterización clínica y epidemiológica de la infección por fasciola hepática entre los años 2003-2010 en el Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú

OBJECTIVE: To describe the demographic and clinical aspects of hepatic fascioliasis as well as the complications and associations between various factors and the disease in a reference hospital.

METHODS: This is a descriptive and retrospective case series study; we included all patients who had a recent diagnosis of hepatic fascioliasis from 2003 to 2010 in the Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia. Demographic and clinical variables were analyzed including complications and treatment received.

RESULTS: 68 medical records were found eligible for the study. The mean age was 36 years. Ancash department was the most frequent place of origin and residence. Most of them were diagnosed in the chronic phase, the most common symptom was abdominal pain and eight patients had complications: 3 hepatic abscess, 1 subcapsular hematoma, 1 cholangitis and 1 cholangitis plus cholecystitis. There were the following associations: Age under 15 years with chronic phase and hyporexia, being a student with a positive stool analysis; and between being born in an endemic area with the absence of complications.

CONCLUSIONS: Hepatic fascioliasis has unspecific clinical presentation so the epidemiological or dietary history and specially eosinophilia should guide the diagnosis.