This is a nerdy medicine post, so skip it if you 1) have a weak stomach or 2) get bored with medical details.
A child came in to clinic this week who looked pale and 'punky' as my pediatric attending from residency would say. He glumly followed his grandmother into the room. Her chief complaint for him was that he eats dirt. On exam, he had pronounced conjunctival pallor, and an odd look to his face (we later identified it as facial edema). I checked a hematocrit- 14%!! His stool sample had lots of trichinella eggs. Trichinellosis/trichinosis can cause the facial edema we saw, as well as the extreme anemia. The iron-deficiency anemia that he had probably led to him eating dirt (pica).
I'm hoping with a couple of weeks of albendazole and lots and lots of iron that he'll look like a different child when he comes back for his checkup!
A child came in to clinic this week who looked pale and 'punky' as my pediatric attending from residency would say. He glumly followed his grandmother into the room. Her chief complaint for him was that he eats dirt. On exam, he had pronounced conjunctival pallor, and an odd look to his face (we later identified it as facial edema). I checked a hematocrit- 14%!! His stool sample had lots of trichinella eggs. Trichinellosis/trichinosis can cause the facial edema we saw, as well as the extreme anemia. The iron-deficiency anemia that he had probably led to him eating dirt (pica).
I'm hoping with a couple of weeks of albendazole and lots and lots of iron that he'll look like a different child when he comes back for his checkup!
