Pulmonary paragonimiasis referred to the department of surgery.

We encountered seven cases of pulmonary paragonimiasis. All patients were adult males and 6 of 7 cases were over 50-year-old. Except for one case of chronic pleural empyema, 6 patients were referred to the department of surgery because of having a mass lesion on chest roentgenography which was indistinguishable from malignancy. Although 3 patients had mild hemoptysis, none of them showed classical rusty sputum. Only one patient had high level of eosinophilia, whereas others showed normal or marginal level of eosinophilia. Paragonimus eggs were detected in transbronchial lung biopsy specimens from 4 patients. All patients' sera were positive for Paragonimus-specific IgG antibody by immunodiagnosis. Surgical option was undergone only for one patient with chronic pleural empyema which was not cured by repeated chemotherapy. In the present series, we could avoid surgical options due to an erroneous diagnosis. When a pulmonary mass lesion or empyema is detected in patients who live in paragonimiasis endemic areas, paragonimiasis should always be included in the different diagnosis of lung diseases.