A vanishing liver abscess complicated with Klebsiella pneumoniae chest wall abscess: a case report.

Septic metastasis is a unique feature of Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess in Taiwan. The case we report is a vanishing K. pneumoniae liver abscess with septic metastasis of the chest wall. The initial finding of a 36 year-old male with no previous medical history, was a huge hepatic mass presented on the sonography during a physical checkup. Hepatitis B, C serology, tumor markers and evidence of metastatic diseases were all negative. A computerized tomography examination was also inconclusive about its nature. Due to the patient's refusal of a liver biopsy, only oral antibiotics were medicated at the outpatient department. Unexpectedly, the follow-up computerized tomography, taken 4 weeks later, demonstrated that the liver mass was nearly absent, while a protruding painful lesion developed over the right chest wall. Under sono-guided aspiration, the chest wall mass was proved to be a pyogenic abscess. The Gram stain revealed gram-negative bacilli and the bacterial culture yielded K. pneumoniae. Under the impression of K. pneumoniae liver abscess with chest wall septic metastasis, after performing percutaneous drainage of the chest wall abscess, the patient was only given parenteral antibiotics for treatment. Both the liver and the chest wall abscesses were at last completely eradicated.