The etiologic relationship of infestation with Oxyuris vermicularis to acute appendicitis in children has been shown frequently, though there is no ready agreement as to whether the parasite is to be considered the direct agent or concomitant and coincidental.
Dean Lewis,1 in discussing this problem, finds that the parasite is found in apparently normal appendixes, in the submucosa as well as between. He suggests the possibility that the parasites often penetrate the mucosa and that this may be the starting point of an acute attack.
While infestation of entire families and institutional groups is not uncommon and while a so-called family tendency to acute appendicitis is known, the combination of the two in one family over a short period of time bears reporting.
The family is of Italian descent and lives in poor circumstances. The mother, Mrs. V. T., aged 34, was first known to be infested at the