Liver Diseases - Liver Abscess

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Liver abscess remain a significant problem with an mortality of upto 30%. Approximately 50% of the patients have a malignancy, 80% of which is hepatobiliary.

Symptom: Fever, Pain, weight loss, jaundice, enlarged liver.

Cause: Obstruction of the biliary tree, particularly in patients with malignancy is currently the most frequent cause of liver abscess.

Treatment: Upto 50% of liver abscess can now be successfully drained non-operatively with catheters placed by CT or ultrasound. Surgery is performed on those patients where percutaneous drainage fails, or may not be possible because of the location of the abscess, and the possibility of pleural cavity contamination. Other indication for surgery include the presence of infarcted hepatic tissue which require cleaning the wound, or the source of the abscess requires concomitant surgical treatment, such as sigmoid colon resection for divurticulitis.