Neurocysticercosis: A contemporary review of epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management

Neurocysticercosis (NCC), infection of the central nervous system by the larval stage of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium, is the most common parasitic disease of the human brain and the leading preventable cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide. Endemic across Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and much of Asia, it has become an increasingly frequent imported disease in high-income countries through migration and travel. Clinical expression ranges from silent calcified granulomas to life-threatening cysticercotic encephalitis, ventricular obstruction, and stroke, depending on parasite burden, evolutionary stage, anatomic compartment, and host immune response.