[A difficult diagnosis: pelvic-abdominal actinomycosis abscess]

A laparotomy for hysterectomy was performed in a 46-year-old nulliparous woman who had worn an intra-uterine sterilization device for 8 years. The patient was in poor general health and had had abdominal pain and repeated episodes of fever over the preceding 3 months. An abscess of the abdominal muscle was found peroperatively. No perforations of the small or large intestine were observed. The pathology examination yielded the diagnosis of Actinomycosis. Actinomyces israeli is the most frequency observed Actinomycae in humans. It is a saprophyte organism of the intestinal flora, not usually found in the vagina and observed in 3.5% of cervical swabs of patients wearing an intra-uterine device (Gupta bodies). The frequency increases with the duration of insertion and the pathogenicity appears when the immune responses are deficient and/or when a cofactor is involved. Treatment relies on surgical exeresis and prolonged antibiotics (penicillin G or macrolides). Hyperbar treatment is sometimes used.