Clinical Features:
Migrating spargana cause various symptoms depending on the final location in the host.  Spargana may locate anywhere, including subcutaneous tissue, breast, orbit, urinary tract, pleural cavity, lungs, abdominal viscera and the central nervous system.  The migration in subcutaneous tissues is usually painless, but when spargana settle in the brain or spine a variety of neurological symptoms may occur, including weakness, headache, seizure, and abnormal skin sensations, such as numbness or tingling.  If the inner ear is involved, the patient may experience vertigo or deafness.  Occasionally, Sparganum proliferum can cause proliferative lesions in the infected tissue, with multiple plerocercoids present in a single site.

Laboratory Diagnosis:
Diagnosis is usually made by the recovery of a sparganum from infected tissue.  The presence of a sparganum is diagnostic and identification to the species level is usually not warranted.  However, the best way to identify the species is to infect an appropriate definitive host with a living sparganum and identify the adult after maturation.

Diagnostic findings

• Microscopy

Treatment:
Surgical removal is the treatment of choice for sparganosis. Generally, treatment with mebendazole, albendazole, or praziquantel is not effective to treat infection with these larvae. In rare cases of proliferative sparganosis, prolonged treatment with mebendazole and praziquantel have been used in addition to surgical removal with mixed success.