[Surgical treatment of amebic liver abscess]

The charts of 50 patients with hepatic amebic abscesses diagnosed during 1976 in the Hospital de Especialidades del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social and in the Unidad Hospitalaria La Paz in the city of Puebla, were reviewed: 39 were men and 11 women, with an age range between the third and sixth decade. It was necessary to resort to surgical treatment in 25 (50%) of the patients for one or various of the following reasons: failure of medical treatment, imminent perforation, septicemia, perforation or the occurrence of an extremely large abscess. The total mortality was 2%. In all cases medical treatment was administered in the pre- and postoperative period. The surgical technique as well as its frequency is described and compared with the results of other groups. The mortality in our study was very low probably because the patients with large abscesses or sepsis were operated on an early stage of their evolution.