Successful surgical treatment of polycystic liver disease.

A patient with multiple liver cysts, erroneously diagnosed as suffering from echinococcal infection, was treated with mebendazole for four months. When fever appeared, she was treated with antibiotics, but her condition further deteriorated. On laparotomy polycystic liver disease was diagnosed and four liters of pus (due to peptostreptococcal infection) was evacuated from one of the cysts, which was also deroofed. The other cysts were excised and the patient recovered. These unusual events are discussed in the light of the pertinent literature.