Liver abscess as a therapeutic and diagnostic challenge

Liver abscess still represents a significant clinical entity with mortality rates of up to 10%. Traditional treatment of liver abscesses is open surgical treatment. Recently, percutaneous and laparoscopic drainage has been increasingly used. Still, in spite of these relatively novel techniques and improved imaging, liver abscess can sometimes be difficult to diagnose or treat. Here we present two cases of chronic liver abscess treated at our department. First patient was twice hospitalized in other hospitals without reaching definitive diagnosis. He was admitted at our department because of clinical presentation of sepsis, and definitive diagnosis of liver abscess was established only during open surgery. Second patient was admitted after laparoscopic drainage and repeated percutaneous drainage had failed to resolve his symptoms. In both cases, liver segment resection led to complete healing. These cases indicate that chronic liver abscess can still present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.