Chapter 2479: 2392 Ascaris Worm Egg Capsule

The Hepatobiliary Inpatient Chief rushed down for a consultation, and after looking at the images he was also dumbfounded.

The patient had obvious upper abdominal pain, rolling back and forth on the gurney. But the more they moved, the more it hurt, and the more it hurt, the less they could stay still.

"Let me check with the second line." The Inpatient Chief and Zhou Litao said, "I think we'll need emergency surgery."

Zhou Litao thought the same; the patient's bile duct was blocked, plus severe upper abdominal pain, making emergency laparotomy exploration necessary. He estimated conservative treatment wouldn't work, and he didn't dare give painkillers casually, fearing he'd miss a perforation or similar complication.

Watching the patient roll on the gurney, Zhou Litao felt pain too; they must be suffering greatly.

"Alright, I'll find someone to go with you to send the patient to the ward." Zhou Litao said.

Afterwards he put the ultrasound report and the upper abdominal CT films into a film bag and handed them to the Hepatobiliary Inpatient Chief. The two strode toward the Emergency Resuscitation Room, preparing to send the patient to Gan Dan Wai Ke.

While waiting for the emergency lab results, the emergency department nurses had already placed a gastric tube and urinary catheter, and secured an intravenous line. If surgery was being prepared, just prepping the skin would suffice. The efficiency of the emergency department is always that high.

Upon arriving at the emergency resuscitation room, the patient was retching.

Zhou Litao had taken a brief history earlier, but because the situation was urgent, he hadn't asked in detail.

The patient was a 24-year-old who had just graduated from college, returning home from school and about to start looking for a job. But no one expected that tonight they would suddenly have abdominal pain, and even the family didn't know the specifics.

Heh… heh… the patient was retching. Because the vomiting had been so violent, the gastrointestinal tract was already empty, so they could only bring up some acidic fluid.

She hadn't vomited blood, and no food was found in the vomitus. Even after gastrointestinal decompression, the vomiting showed no improvement.

The nurse was helping her turn her head to prevent aspiration of vomitus, which could lead to more serious complications.

"Send to hepatobiliary!" Zhou Litao shouted loudly, beginning to help push the gurney out.

As the gurney moved, it seemed to tug at the intestines, and the girl suddenly thrust her head out on the gurney, almost hitting the door of the Emergency Resuscitation Room.

Zhou Litao quickly stopped the gurney, feeling a sudden wave of fear in his heart.

If there were any bumps and a head injury resulted, that would be a iatrogenic trauma, and that would be fucked up.

Heh… Before Zhou Litao's thought could fade, the girl began to vomit even more violently.

At this point there was no gastric liquid left; she shed tears as she continued to retch violently.

What kind of disease is this? It doesn't look like stones, Zhou Litao was still pondering the images while directing the patient's family to watch the patient carefully, making sure no trauma occurs.

But the patient clung tightly to the gurney's side rails, body twitching, vomiting violently; no matter how the family urged, her head remained outside.

Zhou Litao was just about to have someone guard her while he hurried to send the patient to hepatobiliary surgery, but before he could speak, the Hepatobiliary Inpatient Chief suddenly shouted, "Wait a moment!"

"Chen, what's wrong?" Zhou Litao asked in surprise.

Chen strode over to the gastrointestinal decompression apparatus and picked up the negative-pressure bottle.

Zhou Litao focused his gaze, and was immediately stunned.

A worm was sucked out by the negative pressure, half its body in the tubing, half struggling inside the bottle.

I go… what the hell is this?!

Zhou Litao was quite well-traveled and knowledgeable, but seeing a worm in the gastrointestinal decompression… he had never seen anything like it.

Chen's face turned green; he still held the phone, communicating with Professor Yang of the second line. Right then he said, "We saw a worm in the patient's gastrointestinal decompression, white, about 6 cm long!"

"Heh…" The patient vomited violently and finally brought up something.

Another yellowish-white worm!

But there was no gastric fluid; the worm wasn't vomited out, it was dangling from the corner of her mouth, as if countless worms inside her body were crawling out…

"Professor Yang, there are worms in the mouth…" Chen also looked bewildered, "They look like ascaris worms, yellowish-white, earthworm-shaped."

"Alright, I'll start preoperative preparations right away!"

Having said that, he hung up the phone.

"Send her off, send her off!" Chen shouted anxiously, "Go to hepatobiliary, prepare for emergency surgery!"

Watching the group go away, their backs disappearing around the corner, Zhou Litao still saw the image of the gastrointestinal decompression and the worm wriggling deep inside.

If it were ascaris worms… human ascariasis is a common parasitic disease caused by ascaris worms parasitizing the small intestine, with a relatively higher incidence in children.

Adult ascaris worms are cylindrical, resembling earthworms; the eggs are oval, with the eggshell surface often coated with a rough, uneven protein membrane, which becomes brownish-yellow due to bile staining.

Ascariasis is common in children, relatively rare in adults.

But how could an adult have so many worms pouring out? Zhou Litao felt a bit confused.

"Manager Zhou, what is that thing?" a little nurse asked while cleaning the Emergency Resuscitation Room.

"I think it looks like ascaris worms."

"Aren't ascaris worms supposed to come out in the stool? How can they flow backward out of the mouth?" the little nurse asked.

Zhou Litao shrugged; he also didn't know what was going on.

Generally, ascaris infection isn't serious; taking some deworming medicine does the trick. It's said that people who grind their teeth all have ascaris, and a few doses of intestinal worm medicine will clear it up.

This isn't like pork tapeworm, which rarely causes death; it just makes people nauseous. Who wouldn't be scared to see worms in their feces?

"A few days ago I was browsing an online store and saw they were selling ascaris worm egg capsules, claimed to be for weight loss, and if you paid extra they came with deworming medicine." The little nurse said with lingering fear, "Back then I was thinking of buying some to take during my annual leave."

"How dare you eat anything, that stuff is disgusting." Zhou Litao said with a stern face, reprimanding.

"Manager Zhou, you wouldn't know if you didn't have a girlfriend…"

One sentence, and Zhou Litao's scarred heart was stabbed again viciously; after that he couldn't hear clearly what the little nurse said.

"Why wait until vacation?" Zhou Litao asked absentmindedly.

"They say that after taking the ascaris worm egg capsules for a week, you'll have a low fever and general malaise; some people also experience nausea and vomiting. Look at her—she's vomiting terribly! It's a bit frightening; I should think of another approach." The little nurse efficiently cleaned the Emergency Resuscitation Room, turned on the UV light, and began disinfecting.

Zhou Litao thought it over, picked up his phone, and called Chen of Gan Dan Wai Ke.

What the little nurse from the emergency department just said was an important clue; otherwise there'd be no way to explain why so many worms were pouring out from deep inside.

After hanging up, Zhou Litao began to retrieve the patient's upper abdominal CT on the computer.

If ascaris worms had entered the bile duct, imaging would still support it. But bile duct ascariasis in adults is extremely rare; Zhou Litao was studying it bit by bit, enriching his clinical experience.