Hepatic capillariasis in children: Report of 3 cases in Brazil

Capillaria hepatica is a helminth that may cause an extremely rare conditio n of parasitic hepatitis. Only 29 cases have been published, 2 of them in B razil. We report here 3 cases of children in Brazil with massive hepatic ca pillariasis who presented the characteristic triad of this type of infectio n, i.e., persistent fever, hepatomegaly, and eosinophilia. The diagnosis wa s made by liver biopsy. All children responded well after treatment with th iabendazole (case 1), albendazole (case 3), and albendazole in combination with a corticoid (case 2). Case I has been followed-up for 24 years, an eve nt not previously reported in the literature.