Albendazole therapy for giant subarachnoid cysticerci
O. H. Del Brutto, J. Sotelo, R. Aguirre, E. Diaz-Calderon and T. A. Alarcon
Neurologic Service, Regional Hospital of Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security of Guayaquil.
Albendazole is considered to be the drug of choice for treatment of
parenchymal brain cysticercosis. Its efficacy, however, for treatment of
subarachnoid cysticerci has not been established, to our knowledge. In this
study, we treated four patients who had giant subarachnoid cysticerci with
albendazole at daily doses of 15 mg/kg of body weight for 8 days. Computed
tomographic studies showed that all cysts disappeared 3 months after the
end of treatment. This was associated with marked clinical improvement in
every case. Our results indicated that albendazole is highly effective for
treatment of this form of the disease.
