Bone and soft tissue manifestations of alveolar echinococcosis.

OBJECTIVE

The present study demonstrates the osseous and soft tissue manifestations of alveolar echinococcosis (AE).

PATIENTS: We report on eight patients with AE with bone or soft tissue involvement confirmed at biopsy or needle cytology.

RESULTS

All eight patients showed hepatic involvement. Four exhibited infiltration of the spine as a result of direct spread of the hepatic primary lesion; distant metastases were observed in only three of these patients. Calcifications, which are typical for hepatic manifestations of the disease, were observed in soft tissue in only two of eight cases (25%); we observed no instances of endovesicular daughter cysts.

CONCLUSIONS

AE manifests itself in the vertebral column as a form of spondylitis and in soft tissue presents similar to an abscess. Since in most of these cases spread of the disease per continuitatem from the liver is present, the diagnosis is easily made from the characteristic hepatic findings.