Clinical Features:
Acute abdomen is the most-common manifestation in humans, mimicking an appendicitis.  A low-grade fever and tenderness in the lower-right quadrant are the most-common symptoms; vomiting, anorexia, and diarrhea are less-common.  Intestinal obstruction may also occur, mimicking a hernia.  Patients may also present with large, painless cutaneous masses in the lower abdominal region.  In rare instances, Oesophagostomum spp. will perforate the bowel wall, causing purulent peritonitis or migrate to the skin, producing cutaneous nodules.

Laboratory Diagnosis:
Diagnosis is difficult during routine ova and parasite (O&P) examinations of stool, due to the similarity of Oesophagostomum eggs to the eggs of Necator and Ancylostoma.  Eggs tend to be shed in greater numbers during cases of oesophagostomiasis than hookworm infection, however.  Finding an intact worm during surgery or in a biopsy specimen can provide a definitive diagnosis.

Diagnostic findings

• Microscopy

Treatment:
Treatment is usually limited to the surgical removal of adult worms from tissue.  Albendazole has been shown to be the most effective antihelminthic drug for the removal of worms from the lumen of the large intestine.