[Peritoneal echinococcosis].

Secondary peritoneal echinococcosis was recorded from 50 in 312 patients (16 per cent) who had been hospitalised for liver echinococcosis. Hydatido and peritoneal hydatidiosis were recorded from 34 of these patients and thus accounted for the two most common pathological forms of secondary peritoneal echinococcosis, according to Dévè. Peritoneal echinococcosis usually is not diagnosed until conspicuous symptoms grow manifest due to cyst growth or other complications. Positive responses were recorded from all the above cases to laboratory tests (eosinophilia in over five to nine per cent) and were also established on the basis of immune reactions, including the complement fixation reaction according to Weinberg, the intracutaneous test by Casoni, and latex echinococcus reaction. Surgery, at present, is the only promising therapeutic approach to the problem. Surgical intervention could not even be avoided by application of mebendazol. Postoperative lethality amounted to four per cent and morbidity to ten per cent. They were comparatively low, measured by the generally poor prognosis of the disease.