A Case of Liver Abscess Caused by Lactobacillus

Yoshiyuki Kawashima, Susumu Ohwada, Yukio Miyamoto, Masaru Izumi

The Second Department of Surgery, Gunma University School of Medicine

There are no reports on a liver abscess caused by Lactobacillus in the literature. Therefore we report a rare case of this phenomenon. A 68-year-old woman who had subtotal gastrectomy and cholecystectomy four months before was admitted to our hospital because of high fever and right chest pain. A chest roentgenogram showed right pleural effusion. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed a hypoechoic mass in the posterior segment of the liver. A computed tomography revealed a heterogeneous low density mass in the liver. The diagnosis was liver abscess. We treated the patient with antibiotics, but the symptoms became worse and worse. On the 6th drainage contents were milky pus. The causative organism was identified as Lactobacillus catenaforme.

Key words
liver abscess, Lactobacillus catenaforme

Reprint requests
Yoshiyuki Kawashima The Second Department of Surgery, Gunma University School of Medicine
3-39-15, Shouwa-cho, Maebashi, 371 JAPAN

Accepted
June 13, 1990

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