Causative agents of liver abscess in those with liver cirrhosis: a 10-year case review of hospitalized patients in Thailand

Abstract Although patients with cirrhosis of the liver show relative immunosuppression and therefore have increased susceptibility to most infections, they rarely develop liver abscesses. In a retrospective case review, the pathogens causing the liver abscesses observed, between January 1992 and December 2001 at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand, in 44 hospitalized patients diagnosed as cases of liver cirrhosis were investigated. The most common clinical symptoms and signs of the abscesses—abdominal pain (80%), fever and chills (73%), and abdominal tenderness (73%)—were similar to those seen in non-cirrhotic patients with abscesses. The frequency of liver abscess among the cirrhotic patients was low (0.46%). Most (71%) of the abscesses were in the right lobe and most (71%) of those with abscesses only had a single abscess. Surprisingly, many of the abscesses (36%) were apparently caused by amoebae. Bacterial pathogens were identified in eight patients (18%) by blood culture and 15 (34%) patients by pus culture. Seven (16%) of the blood cultures and 13 (30%) of the pus contained Gram-negative aerobes, indicating that such pathogens, particularly Klebsiella pneumoniae (in six pus and six blood cultures) and Escherichia coli (in three pus cultures and one blood), were the most common causes of the bacterial abscesses. Pus culture appeared more successful than blood culture for bacterial abscesses, and amoebic abscesses could always be identified by direct microscopical examination of pus samples. Aspiration of liver abscesses, to obtain pus samples for culture and microscopy, is therefore recommended.