A 51-year-old Korean woman came to our hospital for annual medical examination, including gastroscopy and colonoscopy. One year prior to consult, she traveled to Hainan Island, located in the South China Sea, and stayed there for 3 months.
During colonoscopy, we found a foreign body at the sigmoid colon. It was glossy, cylindrical, milky-white, and wriggling continuously. From the morphological characteristics, we diagnosed it as Ascariasis. We captured it using a net and removed it transanally. We then checked the upper GI deeply using a short intestinal scope and no other worms were detected. Although only one worm was found, we prescribed an anti-helminthic to prevent the potential risk of superinfection. In Japan, with modernization, the incidence of Ascariasis has decreased. However, it may increase with internationalization, hence the importance of being able to diagnose this disease.
