PRIMARY CEREBRAL HYDATID CYSTS

Abstract

A review of primary cerebral hydatid disease in Australasia shows that twenty-nine cases of primary hydatid cyst of the brain have been recorded here during the last sixty years. The fact that such cysts are quite rare in countries where hydatid disease is relatively common has been stated previously by Dew (1934). In the opening paragraph of this article, Dew has clearly stated the basis for differ- entiating this type of cerebral cyst from secondary cerebral infestation: " As in the case of all organs, infestation of the brain with echinococcal disease may be either primary or secondary. In the former, the cysts are derived from hexacanth embryos, which, after passing through the liver and lungs, have been carried by the carotid arterial stream to the brain. Secondary cysts are metastatic, and result from the sowing by the blood stream of scolices, derived from a fertile primary simple cyst which has ruptured into the left side of the heart. It is obvious, although the fact has not been uni- versally recognized, that the pathological and clinical aspects of these two types are very different . . ."