| Background: Schistosomiasis is a contagion caused by intestinal and urinary blood trematodes affecting around 200 million people worldwide. Adult worms colonize human blood vessels for years, successfully escaping the immune system while excreting hundreds to thousands of eggs daily. The chronic infection can cause anemia, retarded growth, hepatosplenomegaly, neurological sequlae and even death. For Diagnosis of schistosomiasis, microscopic examination of human wastes as well as tissues remains the gold standard owing to the characteristic shape and size of the eggs.
Objective: to present a case of bilharzial polyps presented to endoscopy unit of the department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt for colonoscopy and mistaken for IBD with suspicious polypoidal transfromation versus malignant process.
Methodolgy: Snare polypectomy was done and tissues were sent for histopathological evaluation which revealed multiple fresh and calcified bilharzial ova seen in mucosa and submucosa.
Conclusion: This unusual long standing case will give us the chance to recall schistosomiasis, its occurrence as colon polyps, clinical presentation and means of management. |