JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Cysticercosis is a parasitic infection caused by larval form of Taenia solium. Humans become the intermediate hosts for this parasite when the eggs are consumed through contaminated food and water. It is endemic in India. Approximately 50 million people worldwide are infected with the Taeniasis/Cysticercosis complex and 50,000 succumb to death annually. The commonest site of cysticercosis is central nervous system in humans followed by muscles, eyes and subcutaneous tissue. Ocular or adnexal involvement occurs in 13-46% and 1.8-4.5% of the Western and Indian patients suffering from cysticercosis, the commonest ophthalmic site being subretinal space. The anterior segment is the commonest location in Indians where as in Western population it is posterior. The orbit is involved in only 1% of the cases. Only a handful of cases of eyelid cysticercosis have been reported in the past. We report a rare case of isolated eyelid cysticercosis in a young girl who presented with an asymptomatic slowly growing painless mass in the right eyelid.

Key words: Cysticercosis, eyelid, Histopathology