Cerebral echinococcus that can be confused with brain tumour: a case report

Echinococcus is a parasitic disease known as echinococcal zoonosis and is often caused by Echinococcus granulosus. Cerebral echinococcus is extremely rare and has been reported to be less than 1% in the literature and it is more common in the childhood age group.

In the case we are going to present, the patient is an 83-year-old male who was admitted to our clinic with complaints of headache and forgetfulness. The patient, who was initially thought to have a brain tumour, was pathologically diagnosed as echinococcus after surgery. In our case, in addition to the characteristic features, diagnosis and treatment of echinococcus, the rare cerebral metastatic form was also tried to be explained.

Echinococcus, which is frequently encountered in the visceral organs, is most common in the liver, but cases in the brain are very rare. The surgery is the first treatment method of the cerebral form of echinococcus. We must keep the follow-up of patients in the postoperative period due to recurrence of this zoonotic disease.

If we live in an endemic area and the patient has a history, cerebral echinococcus should definitely come to mind in patients with brain tumours. Especially, it should be kept in mind that alveolar echinococcus has a malignant course and it should be followed up postoperatively.