Hydatid cyst of the kidney in a child.

The incidence of hydatid disease varies considerably in different parts of the world. It is common in South America, Australia and parts of Asia; for example, in Beirut, Syria, 0 75o% of hospital admissions over a 10-year period were patients with echinococcus cysts (Baurys, 1952). In Great Britain there are no figures of value about the incidence of hydatid disease because there is no proper system of reporting primary cases infested here as distinct from those infested overseas. The total primary cases are probably fewer than 50 per year, of which nearly half are patients who become infested in endemic areas in other countries (Bensted, 1957). The only endemic area in Great Britain is South Wales; the disease is five times commoner in Wales than in England (Mackay, 1956). Wolfe (1943) reviewed 34 cases, which had occurred over a period of 12 years, from the hospital reports of the Royal Infirmary, Cardiff. The disease is rarely seen after the fourth decade of life and about 26 2% of hydatid cysts occur in patients under 15 years of age. The organic distribution of cysts in children is liver 762 %, lung 11 1 %, brain 4 30% and kidney 1 2% (Dew, 1928). Gray (1953) reviewed the cases of hydatid disease found in the children of Cardiff and did not mention a cyst in the kidney. This confirms the impression drawn from Bensted's and Dew's figures that renal hydatid cyst in a child in Great Britain is a very rare disease.