Doctor shares CT scan of patient's parasite-filled legs after eating undercooked pork
A social media personality doctor shared a computed tomography (CT) scan of a patient who was hospitalized after eating undercooked pork.
On X, Dr. Sam Ghali, an emergency room physician, shared a photo of the scan, which showed the patient's legs filled with parasitic infection in the muscles.
"Here’s one of the craziest CT scans I’ve ever seen," Ghali said.
The doctor said the patient was diagnosed with cysticercosis, which is caused by ingesting the larval cysts of pork tapeworm.
He noted that they're found in undercooked pork and after about five to 12 weeks, evolve within the gastrointestinal to mature adult tapeworms. Such a condition is known as intestinal taeniasis.
The adult tapeworms, according to Ghali, then shed eggs which are, in turn, excreted into human feces.
"It’s very important to note that it is only when these eggs are ingested via fecal-oral transmission, that one can develop the clinical syndrome known as of cysticercosis," he said.
Ghali noted the larvae penetrate the intestinal wall and invade into the bloodstream, during which they spread to the entire body. The brain, eyes, subcutaneous tissues, and skeletal muscles are the most common destinations.
The infections appear on the CT scan as white specks, more commonly referred to as "rice grain calcifications."
Ghali said it's "really bad" when the larvae end up traveling up to the brain and form cysts in actual brain tissue, causing neurocysticercosis. It results in headaches, confusion, seizures, and other serious neurologic problems.
Though the prognosis for cysticercosis is "generally good," he said there are fatal cases. Each year, around 50 million people worldwide get infected which leads to about 50,000 deaths.
He said treatment options include anti-parasitic therapy, steroids, anti-epileptics, and surgical removal.
"So the moral of the story here," he said, "is do your best to keep clean, always wash your hands, and never, ever eat raw or undercooked pork."
Ghali shares with his over 638,000 followers information on medical emergencies.