Case 37-1983: A 76-Year-Old Man with Evidence of a Liver Abscess

Presentation of Case A 76-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of a liver abscess. He was well until three weeks earlier, when he began to have vague discomfort in the midportion of the abdomen that was unrelated to eating and to experience chilliness in the evening. A physician made a diagnosis of diverticulitis and prescribed tetracycline, without improvement. Five days before admission a barium-enema examination (Fig. 1), performed elsewhere, showed diverticula in the sigmoid colon and a communication between the transverse colon and what appeared to be a large, irregular, and nodular abscess cavity in the left hepatic . . .