Kazunari Hino

Four cases of acute liver damage following the ingestion of a sea hare egg

In 1988, Sorokin 1 reported the first human poisoning due to ingestion of a sea hare, the main symptoms being neurological. However, to our knowledge, there have been no case reports of liver damage caused by the ingestion of a sea hare egg. We present four cases of transient acute liver damage that may have been caused by the ingestion of a sea hare egg. The sea hare is a marine mollusk belonging to the family aplysiidae; their eggs are shaped like a fine coiled thread. On May 31, 1992, a 32-year-old male (case 1) and a 34-year-old male (case 2) took a fresh sea hare egg home from the seashore, cleaned it with fresh water, boiled it well, and ate it at around 7 p.m. Their shared it with a 23-year-old female (case 3) and a 51-year-old male (case 4). All four experienced nausea and noted dark urine approximately 12 h after eating the egg. They received no treatment or medication, and visited our hospital 2 days later. They had no history of alcohol abuse, or blood transfusion, and were not on any medication. Their histories were unremarkable; none had a history of liver damage. They had eaten the egg with some beer and food, but not with any particular food or drink that may have caused liver damage. There were no remarkable abnormalities on physical examination at the time of their visit, except for jaundice in cases 1 and 2. None of them showed any neurological abnormalities. Laboratory data showed elevation of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lactic dehydrogcnase (LDH) levels in all tour, and hypcrbilirubincmia