Hydatid Cyst Disease with Hepatic Encephalopathy and Multi-organ Failure: A Rare Case

Abstract

Hepatic Encephalopathy is a serious and fatal complication of chronic liver disease and is broadly  defined as an alteration in mental status and cognitive functions occurring in presence of liver failure. The  diagnosis of hepatic encephalopathy is mainly clinical, sometimes aided by relevant laboratory  (biochemical) investigations-if the infrastructural facilities permit. Histopathological findings in the brain  and other organs are either meager or absent. Hydatid disease is caused by ingestion of eggs of  Echinococcus species. Human beings are accidental intermediate hosts. Two third of hydatid cysts are  found in liver. Though obstructive jaundice occurs as a complication of this cestode infestation,  encephalopathy is rare or does not happen. The determination of the definitive cause of death may  depend on elucidating the histological features of non apparent or equivocal macroscopic lesions. In this  case presentation it has been attempted, to illustrate a rare postmortem finding of hydatid disease in a clinical presentation of hepatic encephalopathy where post-mortem histopathological examination shows  multi-organ ischemic necrosis.