This man's routine surgery revealed he has parasitic worms in his stomach

Doctors find parasites inside man's stomach routine surgery
© Jonathan Borba
Doctors find parasites inside man's stomach routine surgery
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Clonorchis sinensis, generally known as Chinese or oriental liver fluke, can live inside the human body and cause lasting damage to vital organs.

Doctor's have found many a confounding and unusual objects inside patients. In one case, a man had a wood splinter in his eye for 15 years. In other bizarre case, a man unknowingly had chopstick stuck in his brain for 5 months.

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Sometimes the 'object' might even a living thing! Yikes!

As reported by Livescience, in one such occurrence, doctors performing a routine surgery on a man, came across live parasitic worms living inside his abdomen! There's even a camera recording of the find!

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Doctors find living worms inside patient

The case was documented in a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The incident transpired in China. A 70-year-old patient who suffered from colon cancer, came in for a surgery to remove a tumour. For the surgery, doctors inserted a small camera in the man's abdomen.

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Beware of consuming raw or undercooked fresh-water fish or shrimps Anastasia Shuraeva
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Everything went as planned until the surgeons were stumped as they encountered five large, brown parasitic worms in the man's biliary tract. It is the set of tubes that make, store and transfer bile, which is the fluid made by the liver to help your body digest food.

The parasites were removed by the doctors. These have since been identified as Clonorchis sinensis, generally known as Chinese or oriental liver fluke.

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Parasitic oriental liver fluke

As per Livescience, this parasite is a food-borne pathogen, and it can be a source of liver disease in humans. C. sinensis is found in East Asia and eastern Russia.

The most common way in which people come to ingest the parasite is through ingesting its larvae in raw or undercooked freshwater fish or shrimp.

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Once inside the body, the larvae migrates from the small intestine to the biliary tract. It then takes about a month to mature into full-blown worms.

While many people might carry these parasites without even knowing, in some cases, people might suffer from abdominal pain, headaches and dizziness.

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Left untreated, these parasites can survive inside the body forever, causing medical issues such as liver enlargement and malnutrition. This is because the biliary tract consists of the liver, gallbladder and bile ducts.

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Sources used:

Livescience: 'Watch parasitic worms get pulled from man's abdomen after surprise discovery during routine surgery'

The New England Journal of Medicine: 'Clonorchis sinensis Liver Flukes'

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