Colonoscopic extiripation of whipworms in patient with acute abdomen-like symptoms

A 25-year-old Indonesian male who had been living in Japan for the previous 2 years was hospitalized with sudden severe pain throughout his entire abdomen, but without abdominal guarding. Colonoscopy revealed 15 Trichuris trichiura whipworms in the cecum. These worms were extirpated using biopsy forceps. Immediately after extirpation, the abdominal pain disappeared. In Japan, whipworm infection with acute abdomen-like symptoms at onset is extremely rare. In the present case, whipworm infection was diagnosed during colonoscopy, and the patient was simultaneously treated by extirpation of worms, thus indicating the utility of colonoscopy.