Isolated spontaneous biceps abscess causing septic shock in a diabetic patient: A rare case report

Intramuscular abscesses, particularly in the biceps brachii, are an extremely rare phenomenon. When present they are usually secondary to trauma, intramuscular injections, or systemic disease.

A 56 year old diabetic woman presented to our emergency department with a 3 day history of fever, cough, and a painful left shoulder. Although she had a mechanical fall 2 weeks prior, she denied any pain in her shoulder immediately after the fall. She also denied any history of drug abuse or recent intramuscular injection. On examination she looked acutely unwell and was in acute septic shock requiring inotropic support. Computed tomography of her shoulder showed a large intramuscular abscess in her left biceps brachii muscle. She was immediately taken to the operating theatre for open exploration and washout of the abscess. The multiloculated abscess was tracking into the glenohumeral joint. Post operatively she showed significant clinical improvement and after a 2 week course of intravenous antibiotics recovered well and was discharged from hospital.

Intramuscular abscesses are usually seen in patients who are immunocompromised. Intramuscular needle injections and haematomas secondary to trauma are also risk factors. To the best of our knowledge, there have only been 4 published reports in the English literature of intramuscular abscess formation in the biceps brachii.

We report a case of a seemingly spontaneous intramuscular biceps abscess in a diabetic patient presenting with septic shock.