no
no
no

Liver abscesses

Liver abscesses may be: 
  • Pyogenic (80% of liver abscesses in the developed world) 
  • Amoebic 
  • Fungal 

Presentation: 
  • Fever
  • Abdominal pain/tenderness 
  • Nausea/vomiting 
  • Chest pain 
  • Weight loss 
  • Rarely: cough/hiccups from diaphragmatic irritation

Diagnosis:
  • US 
  • CT 
  • Bloods – raised ALP commonest finding on LFTs 

Management 
  • 2-3 weeks broad-spectrum IV antibiotics followed by 2-4 weeks oral antibiotics 
  • Percutaneous drainage if >3cm in size 
  • Surgical drainage if multiple/loculated abscess

Small print gem: most abscesses (around 70%) are in the right lobe of the liver


References 
author profile image
Abdelghafour

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

no
Secret collector of interesting anonymised ECGs. Fan of the Bath Photomarathon. Lover of cream teas. [Sarah Hudson] (Your Picture)