Lymphatic filariasis in patients with hydrocele undergoing surgery in zagazig university hospital

This work aimed to study if and to what extent was lymphatic filariasisresponsible for hydrocele in patients coming from endemic areas as well asfrom areas not known to be endemic for the disease.This study was conducted on 100 patients presenting with hydroceleundergoing surgery in the Surgery and Urology Departments, ZagazigUniversity Hospitals. Twenty control persons were included in this study.Another 50 patients and 10 control persons were choosen from endemic areasand 50 patients and 10 control persons were choosen from areas not known tobe endemic for filariasis.A fun medical history was taken to cover the various aspects of personal,present and past histories especially those related to filariasis. Every personwas submitted to thorough clinical examination with special stress on signssuggestive of filarial infection, examination of at least 3 blood films stainedwith Giernsa or leishman stain was taken at night or after provocation test withDEC, examination of serum from patients and control groups and examinationof hydrocele fluid of patients for the presence of antifilarial 19Oantibodies byELISA technique and presence of circulating filarial antigen by lCT test.