ABSTRACT
Inflammation is the sum of vascular, cellular, and humoral phenomena through which animals focalize effector mechanisms against invading microorganisms or other material causing tissue damage. Three infrequent forms of intestinal amebiasis, i.e., toxic megacolon, appendicitis, and ameboma may add to our knowledge of the versatile inflammation elicited by Entamoeba histolytica. Amebomas may result from secondary bacterial invasion of an amebic abscess of the intestinal cell wall, while some authors have claimed a peculiar state of hypersensitivity in the host. Amebic liver abscess, the most frequent extraintestinal lesion caused by Entamoeba histolytica, has also made the more lasting contribution to the reductionistic concept of the noninflammatory character of invasive amebiasis. Striking as the inflammatory reaction elicited by Entamoeba histolytica is in human and experimental animals, the restitutio ad integrum of the affected organ upon recovery is even more remarkable.
