[Abdominal actinomycosis. Report of three cases and review of the literature]

Abstract

Actinomyces are Gram positive, anaerobic, filamentous bacteria, saprophytes of the oral cavity and intestinal tract of humans. They rarely cause chronic suppurative infections. Abdominal abscess can masquerade as a malignant process and lead to a surgical intervention with resection. We report three patients with abdominal actinomycosis; the first affected the liver with a favorable outcome on medical treatment, the second of abdomino-pelvic localisation was related to an intra-uterine device and the last affecting the transverse colon simulated a malignant process and required an hemicolectomy. These observations illustrates the difficulties of the diagnosis of this rare and unrecognized disease.