Descriptive analysis of 41 patients with pyogenic abscess of the liver

Objective. To identify the clinical, laboratory and imaging characteristics of 41 patients with a pyogenic hepatic abscess. Research design: Retrospec tive, descriptive. Setting: Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutric ion, Salvador Zubiran. Study units. 41 patients with a pyogenic hepatic abs cess. Main measurements: The measurement of the following variables was car ried out: previous background, period of evolution, symptoms, signs, labora tory studies, imaging, treatment, complications and evolution. Results. 41 patients were evaluated, The average age of the group was 52.5 years (SD = 14.3) and 30 (73%) were male. The most frequent associated disease was diab etes mellitus which was found in 15 patients (37%). The most frequent clini c data were: fever in 38 patients (93%), chills in 26 (63%) and pain in the upper right quadrant in 25 (61%). The most common source of the formation of the abscess was of biliary origin in six patients (15%) and the serum am oeba test was positive in 10% of the cases. The localization of the abscess in our series was as follows: 33 cases (81%) were from the right lobe, fiv e (12%) from the left lobe, three (7%) from both lobes and 87% were solitar y. The germ found more frequently was E. coli in five patients (15%). As fo r the treatment, puncture by computed tomography was carried out in 25 pati ents (61%), four patients had a surgery and the rest were treated only with antibiotics. Regarding mortality, only one patient died (29%) due to a sep tic shock. Conclusions. An association with diabetes mellitus was identifie d and the most frequent origin was biliary, these data have already been re ported in other studies. On the other hand, mortality and morbidity rates i n our study were low.