[Diagnosis of liver abscess]

The diagnosis of hepatic abscesses in outpatients is accurate in hardly half of the cases. The rest of them are commonly taken for: acute cholecystitis, cholecystopancreatitis, pancreatitis, peritonitis, phlebitis of the splenic veins, intestinal obstruction, chronic enterocolitis, pneumonia, pleurisy. Misdiagnosis is usually attributed to the absence of pathognomonic symptoms and atypical course of a hepatic abscess. With right chest and hypochondrium pains of unknown origin and elevation of body temperature, diagnostic efforts should be directed to recognition of a hepatic abscess.