Pyogenic Liver Abscess: Does Escherichia Coli Cause more Adverse Outcomes than Klebsiella Pneumoniae?

This paper aims to demonstrate if Escherichia coli pyogenic liver abscess (ECPLA) results in adverse outcomes compared to Klebsiella pneumoniae PLA (KPPLA).

A retrospective review of all patients admitted at a tertiary hospital in Singapore from 2003 to 2011 was performed. Patients with age <18 years, amoebic liver abscess, infected liver cyst, culture negative abscess or ruptured liver abscess requiring urgent surgical intervention were excluded. Only patients with blood or pus culture confirmation of ECPLA (n = 24) or KPPLA (n = 264) were included. Median length of hospital stay, failure of non-operative therapy and 30-day mortality are the reported outcomes.

ECPLA affects older patients (68 vs. 62 years, p = 0.049). Ischemic heart disease was more common in ECPLA (29 vs. 14 %, p = 0.048) and there was no difference in diabetic state (42 vs. 38 %, p = 0.743). ECPLA is more commonly associated with hyperbilirubinemia (60 vs. 34 µmol/L, p = 0.003), increased gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (236 vs. 16 IU/L, p = 0.038) and gallstones (58 vs. 30 %, p = 0.004). KPPLA are larger in size (6 vs. 4 cm, p = 0.006) and had percutaneous drainage (PD) more frequently (64 vs. 42 %, p = 0.034). There was no difference in median hospital stay (14 vs. 14 days, p = 0.110) or 30-day mortality (17 vs. 10 %, p = 0.307) between ECPLA and KPPLA. Among patients with ECPLA, antibiotic treatment with PD appeared to have higher mortality compared to antibiotic treatment alone (30 vs. 7 %) but this was not significant (p = 0.272).

In the setting of multimodal care, outcomes of ECPLA are comparable to KPPLA.