Successfully removed a leech nearly 8 cm long that had been parasitic in a patient's trachea for many days.

This is an 18-year-old male patient with symptoms such as dry cough, loss of voice, hoarse voice, and mild difficulty breathing for the past 2 months.

The doctor performed endoscopy to remove the foreign object.

Through examination, doctors from the Department of Functional Exploration, Hung Thinh General Hospital determined that this was a case of foreign body in the airway caused by a water leech that had been parasitizing the patient's trachea for about 60 days.

Immediately afterwards, the doctor performed an endoscopy and successfully removed a leech nearly 8 cm long from the patient's trachea.

A leech nearly 8 cm long was successfully removed from the patient's trachea.

Doctor Pham Dinh Thu, Head of the Department of Functional Exploration, Deputy Director of Hung Thinh General Hospital, who directly performed the endoscopy to remove the foreign object, said: The endoscopy to remove the leech was quite difficult because the patient coughed a lot, and the animal continuously moved up and down between the two vocal cords and trachea.

Leeches are parasitic invertebrates, with a body 8 - 12 cm long, flattened and divided into many small segments. Leeches have two suckers: oral suckers at the head and caudal suckers at the end of the body, used to cling to surfaces. The jaw is a muscular mass containing small teeth that help the leech cut the host's skin to suck blood.

Leeches live mainly in the area of ​​flowing streams, clinging to stones and pebbles, easily entering the nose, throat, and trachea through oral route. If not detected and removed early, it can cause prolonged upper respiratory tract infection, difficulty breathing, respiratory failure affecting life.

Doctors recommend that local people should prepare boiled water when working in the fields or forests; they should not drink water from streams in the forest, as it is easy for leeches, ticks and other parasites to enter the body.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/gap-thanh-cong-dia-dai-gan-8-cm-ky-sinh-nhieu-ngay-trong-khi-quan-benh-nhan-post399318.html