An unusual cause of epistaxis, anemia and upper respiratory tract obstruction, Leeches: Report of three cases
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Engin Şengül 1 * , Salih Bakır, Cemile Arıkan Şengül, Ömer Erdur
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1 Siirt State Hospital, Department of Otolaryngology, Siirt, Turkey * Corresponding Author

Abstract

The leech is an endoparasite for man and may cause lethal complications. In this article, we report two cases of 4 and 6-year-old who presented epistaxis due to leech infestasyon in nasopharynx and other case of 65-year-old adult with alzheimer who presented obstruction of upper respiratory tracks and anemia due to leech infestation in larynx. Especially in rural areas, it should always be borne in mind that leech might cause high mortality and morbidity due to serious complications such as anemia and obstruction of upper respiratory tracts and should be considered in evaluating the differential diagnosis of upper airway obstruction.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Case Report

J Clin Exp Invest, Volume 3, Issue 3, September 2012, 401-403

https://doi.org/10.5799/ahinjs.01.2012.03.0188

Publication date: 11 Sep 2012

Article Views: 2418

Article Downloads: 1000

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