Because treatment may cause inflammatory reactions to develop around cysticerci, ocular cysticercosis and spinal cysticercosis are not usually treated medically. Patients who take anticonvulsant medications should continue to use them during treatment for cysticercosis, but many patients can stop taking antiseizure medications after cysticercosis therapy. CT scanning should be repeated three to six months after therapy to determine whether any of the cysts are still viable, and therapy should be repeated if viable cysts remain. The infection is usually asymptomatic, although abdominal pain, weight loss, increased appetite, or passage of proglottids may be experienced. As noted, the detection of eggs in the feces or on the perianal skin is diagnostic of tapeworm infection, but differentiation between Taenia species requires identification of the proglottids.
Therapy consists of praziquantel, as given for T. solium intestinal infection.
Infection with T. sagi nata does not lead to cysticercosis in humans. In the United States, it is most commonly encountered in persons living in the southern states, in institutionalized patients, and in children. Unlike the other tapeworms, the larval and adult stages of H. nana develop in the same host. Infection is spread by the fecal-oral route and occurs when eggs, which are immediately infectious, are ingested. Eggs are liberated from the distal segments of the adult worm, which lives for about one year.