Two Cases of Human Thelaziasis

ABSTRACT

The authors report two cases of Thelazia callipaeda in Korea. The patients complained of foreign body sensation, lacrirmation, and conjunctival reaction. The first case was a 24-year-old man who had a male and a female worms in the conjunctival sac of the eye. The gross appearance of the worms was white nematode, and their microscopic measurement are as follows 8.22mm in length, 0.29mm in width, 0.02mm in length of oral cavity, 0.48mm in length of the esophagus, 190-360 cuticular striations per mm. The second case was a 9-years-old girl from whom the authors extracted 14 mobile worms in the conjunctival sac of the eye. The worms were 5 males and 9 females. Morphologic features are as follows; average length of the male and female 11mm and 16mm, 0.30mm and 0.29mm of width, 0.60mm and 0.64mm of the esophagus, 0.026mm and 0.03mm of the oral cavity respectively. They had about 240 cuticular striations per mm, and male had coiled tails. From the above findings, it was confirmed as T. callipaeda, and the authors report it with review of the literature.