Efficiency of ultrasound in the detection of the viability of hydatid cysts in the liver.

Summary The aim of the present study was to establish the relationship between viability of the hydatid cyst and its ultrasonic appearance (Gharbi classification). To evaluate cyst viability, the criteria that were reported by the World Health Organization in 1982 for both the microbiological evaluation of the cystic fluid and the pathological evaluation of the cyst wall were used. In this study, the possibility of being viable was high in Type I cysts; the possibility of being dead was high in Type IV cysts. It is concluded that there is a relationship between ultrasonic appearance and the evolution of hydatid cysts.