[Amoebic liver abscess: observations in seven patients]

Abstract

Introduction: The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with amoebic liver abscess are described.

Methods: Laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological records of all patients with amoebic liver abscess diagnosed from 1991 to 2002 at Hospital Universitario Son Dureta (Palma de Mallorca, Spain), a 980-bed referral hospital in the Balearic Islands, were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: Seven patients were diagnosed with amoebic liver abscesses and all were residing in Mallorca. Two patients had developed the disease after travelling to endemic areas (India and Thailand), and another, from Ecuador, had been diagnosed four months after coming to Spain from his country of origin. In the remaining four patients, no apparent link with endemic areas was observed, nor was travel out of Spain recorded. Therefore, these cases were thought to have originated in Spain, though this circumstance could not be conclusively proven. Two of the seven patients had human inmunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Conclusions: An amoebic etiology should be considered in the differential diagnosis of liver abscess in our area, even in the absence of a clear related epidemiological history.