Tapeworm eating man's brain for 15 years removed

Beijing: Doctors in China have performed a successful surgery to remove a 12-centimeter tapeworm from a local man’s head.

The tapeworm was reportedly eating the man’s brain for more than 15 years.

The patient quoted by Chinese media outlets as Wang Lei, hailing from Guangzhou city of Chinese province Guangdong, had also undergone a successful brain tumor surgery.

Reports say that the issue was first identified when Lei felt some headache early in 2007 and since then his health deteriorated despite being treated for his tumor.

He continued to suffer from frequent seizures and blackouts and finally a tapeworm was discovered in his head after a thorough checkup from doctors in 2018.

Keeping in view the sophisticated procedure of the operation, the patient was initially advised to avoid surgery and use other methods to remove the tapeworm.

However, the operation that took two hours, was carried out and the doctors were successful in removing a parasite identified as Sparganum mansoni. It is commonly found in the intestines of cats and dogs.

A doctor who performed the surgery said that it was risky as the tapeworm was moving in the head and they had remove it completely in order to avoid any remnants in the head that might again grow up.

Identifying the aspects causing this situation, the doctor advised to remain careful in cooking frogs, snails and snakes and drinking water from wild without boiling it.