Carla Navarro Moratalla‡, Antonio Melero Abellán‡, Toni Ivanov Stoyanov§Corresponding author: Carla Navarro Moratalla ( carlav.navarro@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Galya Stavreva © Carla Navarro Moratalla, Antonio Melero Abellán, Toni Ivanov Stoyanov. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Navarro Moratalla C, Melero Abellán A, Stoyanov TI (2026) Enterobius vermicularis: The great pretender. Misdiagnosis of acute appendicitis leads to increased morbidity. Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research 19: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3897/jbcr.e183126 |  |
The role of Enterobius vermicularis in the pathogenesis of acute appendicitis remains controversial, as it may be associated with appendiceal colic in the absence of actual histological inflammation. A retrospective study was conducted in two hospitals in Spain between June 2016 and January 2021, including six patients with histologically confirmed E. vermicularis infection. 1 two males and four females with a median age of 20 years. All patients presented with right iliac fossa pain and underwent laparoscopic appendectomy. In all cases, the appendix appeared hyperemic without macroscopic signs of acute inflammation, and histological examination confirmed the absence of acute appendicitis. All patients received postoperative mebendazole. No postoperative complications occurred.
Enterobius vermicularis may mimic acute appendicitis by causing appendiceal colic, but it is rarely associated with true inflammatory appendicitis. Appendectomy should therefore be performed with caution when the appendix appears non-inflamed, given the possibility of E. vermicularis infection and the associated risk of intra-abdominal contamination.