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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2025; 13(36): 113778
Published online Dec 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i36.113778
Published online Dec 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i36.113778
Hepatic fascioliasis of emphasizing diagnostic difficulty and the need for high index of suspicion: Four case reports
Sebhatleab T Mulate, Bishaw D Gesese, Department of Internal Medicine, Addis Ababa University, College of Health Science, Addis Ababa 9086, Ethiopia
Abdulsemed Mohammed Nur, Rodas T Annose, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia
Hiwot B Mengistu, Anteneh E Berga, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1111, Ethiopia
Aga L Ulfata, Department of Radiology, Addis Ababa University, College of Health Science, Addis Ababa 9086, Ethiopia
Author contributions: Mulate ST contributed to the original draft writing, discussion, literature review, and editing; Nur AM contributed to the resources, supervision, index case management, editing, and validation; Annose RT contributed to index case management and supervision, Gesese BD contributed to the introduction, original draft writing, and editing; Mengistu HB contributed to index case management and editing; Berga AE contributed to supervision and index case management; Ulfata AL contributed to resources and discussion.
Informed consent statement: Verbal and written consent was taken from the patients and all images were shared with patients consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sebhatleab T Mulate, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Addis Ababa University, College of Health Science, Zambia Street, Addis Ababa 9086, Ethiopia. sebmulate@gmail.com
Received: September 3, 2025
Revised: October 24, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: December 26, 2025
Processing time: 113 Days and 15.4 Hours
Revised: October 24, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: December 26, 2025
Processing time: 113 Days and 15.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Hepatic fascioliasis remains a significant yet under-recognized cause of morbidity, particularly in endemic regions. Its variable presentations, prolonged clinical course, and limited clinician awareness—coupled with constrained access to serologic testing—often lead to misdiagnosis (e.g., as malignancy or bacterial abscess). This results in unnecessary costs and delayed treatment. A high index of clinical suspicion, a thorough inquiry about exposure and travel history, recognition of characteristic imaging findings, and correlation with eosinophilia are critical for a timely diagnosis. Early empiric treatment, which is simple and cost-effective, can prevent invasive procedures and reduce the patient burden.