OBJECTIVE: To present a case of hepatobiliary ascariasis complicated by exogenous lipoid aspirative pneumonia and the anesthetic implications involved. CASE DESCRIPTION: We present a case of hepatobiliary ascariasis complicated by exogenous lipoid aspirative pneumonia and severe undernourishment in a two-year-old female from a five-children poor family from the Brazilian rural area. She was successfully treated by the association of repeated bronchopulmonary lavage and surgery. COMMENTS: Biliary ascariasis corresponds roughly to 10% of complicated ascariasis cases. Only a minority requires surgery. Mineral oil is a traditional treatment for intestinal Ascaris lumbricoides subocclusion, but oil aspiration and lipoid pneumonia remain a highly morbid risk of this practice. General anesthesia and laparotomy in an undernourished small child with lipoid pneumonia and biliary ascariasis were rarely addressed in the medical literature. Therefore, the therapeutic planning of this case was difficult.
ascaridiasis; pneumonia, lipid; child
