Case Report
Copyright ©2013 Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 16, 2013; 1(2): 79-81
Published online May 16, 2013. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v1.i2.79
Globalised world, globalised diseases: A case report on an amoebiasis-associated colon perforation
Marcus Redaèlli, Jawad Mahmoohdzad, Rahim Lang, Martin Schencking
Marcus Redaèlli, Institute of General Practice, University of Düsseldorf’s Medical School, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Jawad Mahmoohdzad, Martin Schencking, Institute for General Practice and Family Medicine, University of Witten/Herdecke’s Medical School, 54884 Witten, Germany
Rahim Lang, Department for Visceral Surgery, Elbe Klinik Buxtehude, 21614 Buxtehude, Germany
Author contributions: All authors conceived the case report, had read the manuscript in its final version and had checked it and provided it with critical remarks; Redaèlli M and Schencking M took on the data analysis, the literature review and preparation of the manuscript; all authors have read the manuscript in its final version and have checked it and provided it with critical remarks.
Correspondence to: Martin Schencking, MS, Institute for General Practice and Family Medicine, University of Witten/Herdecke’s Medical School, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 54884 Witten, Germany. martin.schenking@uni-wh.de
Telephone: +49-2302-926712 Fax: +49-2302-926745
Received: January 17, 2013
Revised: April 11, 2013
Accepted: April 17, 2013
Published online: May 16, 2013
Processing time: 119 Days and 3.9 Hours
Abstract

In 2010 the World Health Organisation estimated the number of infections with Entamoeba histolytica at about 50 million cases including 100000 fatal courses. In most cases this infection is a subclinical event with few or none symptoms noticeable for the patient. Courses of this disease and incidence of this parasite in industrialised nations are not yet fully investigated. Our case reports about a 68-year-old male patient from Turkey who lives for more than 30 years in Germany and had not been abroad during the past 2 years. Resistant asymptomatic amoebic dormant bodies caused an emergency-laparoscopy and revealed the seldom complication of a colon perforation. In the age of globalisation all providers in the health care systems are urged to acquaint themselves also with non-typical syndromes for the countries they work in order to reduce preventable morbidity respectively mortality rates.

Keywords: Amoebiasis; Entamoeba histolytica; Colon perforation; Surgical treatment

Core tip: This case shows how important it is that medicine providers expected rare diseases from other regions from the globalised world. The clinical signs of this patient have been wrongly interpreted. Itself the operation was not targeted. The histopathological examination of resected intestine had a surprising result, but not the source of the clinical signs. Only the use of the polymerase change reaction (PCR) identified the causal link between the clinical signs and the trigger. So the PCR should be the central feature in the diagnostic of unclear or undefined clinical signs.