15cm-long parasitic worm removed from man’s eye

Team Udayavani, Oct 12, 2018, 3:26 PM IST

Kundapur: A video footage of an eye-surgeon removing a live parasitic worm, almost 6 inches in length from a patients eye has gone viral over social media.

The patient, a 60-year-old man had been experiencing discomfort in one of his eyes and decided to get himself examined at the New Medical Centre in Kundapur here. Upon examination, it was found that a worm was slithering around the white of his eye.

Dr Srikanth Shetty, the examining doctor decided to operate on the patient as he stood to lose his vision if the worm was not removed immediately. Dr Shetty, while speaking to media persons, however, said that the challenge was to remove the worm ‘live’ as killing it would have led to complications. The whole procedure was filmed and its footage posted online.

It is only when the worm was removed and placed in a plastic container that its actual size(15 cm) becomes known.

According to Dr Shetty, the worm is believed to be Wuchereria Bancrofti, a type of roundworm that is spread via mosquito bites.

Reportedly the patient is said to have worms in his blood also and has been put on medication.