A Case of Twice Recurring Ocular Thelaziasis from Thelazia callipaeda

Bon Hyeok Gu; Dong Eun Oh

doi:10.3341/jkos.2018.59.9.867

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Gu and Oh: A Case of Twice Recurring Ocular Thelaziasis from Thelazia callipaeda

Case Report

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2018;59(9):867-870.

Published online: 25 September 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2018.59.9.867

A Case of Twice Recurring Ocular Thelaziasis from Thelazia callipaeda

Bon Hyeok Gu, MD, Dong Eun Oh, MD

Department of Ophthalmology, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Dong Eun Oh, MD Department of Ophthalmology, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, #53 Jinhwangdo-ro 61-gil, Gangdong-gu, Seoul 05368, Korea Tel: 82-2-2225-1379, Fax: 82-2-2225-1485 E-mail: ezer75@hanmail.net

Received 12 April 2018 Revised 6 June 2018 Accepted 28 August 2018

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

We report a case of recurrent ocular thelaziasis by Thelazia callipaeda.

Case summary

A 71-year-old male visited the ophthalmic clinic, complaining of itching, a foreign body sensation, and irritation in the right eye. He was previously diagnosed with Thelazia callipaeda infection, 3 months prior, at another hospital. A parasite, shaped like a thin small thread, was found in the conjunctival sac of his right eye, with active movement. The parasite was identified as Thelazia callipaeda by pathology. Four months after removal of the parasite, symptoms relapsed in the same eye. Two parasites were rediscovered and removed. Since then, no additional specific sign related to the parasite has been noted in fol-low-up examinations.

Conclusions

Due to frequent recurrence of infections caused by the short life cycle of the parasite, monthly follow-up examinations are required for at least 1 year after discovery of the parasite.

Keywords: Parasite, Recurrence, Thelazia callipaeda, Thelaziasis

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Figure 1.

Slit-lamp microscopic view. A Thelazia callipaeda in conjunctival sac.

Figure 2.

Photographs of the collected Thelazia callipaeda from patient's eye (microscopic appearance). (A) Gross appearance of Thelazia callipaeda. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain (×10). (B) The helminth contains numerous microfilaria within the uterus (arrow), H&E (×200).

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