An interesting case was written in the journal BMJ Case Reports. A 50-year-old Chinese man was treated for eczema for several months. Meanwhile, what appeared to be a rash turned out to be the remains of a caterpillar.
- The moth moth is one of the most harmful species of moths. Its caterpillars are extremely hairy
- Touching the bristles may cause an allergic reaction. However, it is invariably rare for a caterpillar to bite a person and, even worse, leave fragments of its body in its body
- Such a case has been described by Chinese dermatologists
- More current health information can be found on the Onet homepage
Eczema turned out to be a foreign body
The story is featured in BMJ Case Reports, a journal documenting various, often surprising, medical cases.
A man in his fifties reported to the dermatology ward of a hospital in Fujian Province, China. He complained of redness and pain in his left wrist that hadn’t gone away for five months. Earlier, his condition was diagnosed as eczema at the local clinic. He was given a steroid ointment and oral antihistamines, but it didn’t ease his symptoms.
At the hospital, physical examinations were performed and a biopsy was performed. The former showed erythematous papules and nodules. However, the results of histopathological examinations turned out to be surprising. They showed many “unique structures” in the dermis and subcutaneous fatty tissue – these were small hollow tunnels containing bristles, lymphocytes (white blood cells), histiocytes (immune cells) and multinuclear giant cells were also found there. This meant that a foreign organism was nested in his body.
The explanation – a caterpillar
The medics carefully scrutinized the specialist literature and theorized that these structures were the remains of a caterpillar with its characteristic bristles. Their suspicions were confirmed after an interview with the patient. He admitted that he had climbed a tree of the Samarangian cap species five months early, on which there were many caterpillars of a moth known in Polish as gypsy moth. This insect is considered extremely invasive and harmful. One of the caterpillars bit the Chinaman.
In order to alleviate the effects of insect bites, it is worth using Mini-Click to soothe the symptoms of insect bites, which you can buy at a favorable price on Medonet Market.
Touching the bristles of many species of caterpillars causes severe allergic reactions, which can be effectively treated with antihistamines or steroids. In this case, something more happened. It is rare for the caterpillar fragments to end up under the patient’s skin.
Doctors at the hospital in Fujian prescribed topical injections of betamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, for treatment. After some time the changes subsided.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to one of the ways to deal with stress – the TRE method. What is it about? How does it release us from stress and trauma? Who is it intended for and who should definitely not use it? About this in the latest episode of our podcast.