Man suffered splitting headaches as tapeworms lived in his brain for years
Kathmandu, January 31
A very rare case of tapeworm was diagnosed in the United States. After years of splitting headaches, Gerardo Moctezuma from Texas was diagnosed with tapeworm larvae that had taken up space in his brain.
As reported by the CNN, the cyst of tapeworms could've killed him if he had waited any later to seek help, said Dr. Jordan Amadio, a neurosurgeon at Austin's Ascension Seton Medical Center. Luckily, Amadio's patient, Gerardo Moctezuma, finally sought that help when his headaches sent him into dizzy fainting spells.
"It's very intense, very strong, because it made me sweat...from the pain," Moctezuma was quoted as saying by the CNN.
MRI images revealed life-threatening pressure in Moctezuma's brain—the result of tapeworm larvae that became lodged in the brain's fourth ventricle, filled with cerebrospinal fluid.
It's a condition called neurocysticercosis, which can cause neurological symptoms when larval cysts develop in the brain.
Moctezuma underwent emergency surgery to remove the tapeworms. Amadio opened a part of his skull near the brain stem and successfully removed the cyst in one piece.
