Clinical research of primary liver cancer mimicking liver abscess

Background: Aiming at diagnosing at an early stage, minimizing the misdiagnosis rate and improving the prognosis, the author has investigated the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancer mimicking liver abscess with a summary and discussion.Methods: All of the 11 cases of primary liver cancer mimicking liver abscess, diagnosed during January 2009 to December 2015, were retrospectively viewed in terms of clinical manifestations, laboratory tests, radiological feature, diagnosis and treatment. And statistic analysis was made in all aspects mentioned above with that of pyogenic liver abscess and other types of liver cancer diagnosed in the corresponding period. Results: The clinical manifestations of the 11 cases were mostly characterized by fever, abdominal pain and weight loss. There was no significantly statistic difference between the study group and any of the three matched groups in underlying disease and lab results. All of the 11 patients were treated with enhanced antibiotics as basic therapy. Furthermore, eight cases accepted surgical operation, among them, one object underwent puncture and drainage of the liver abscess by ultrasound (PDLA) twice pre-operation, one object underwent PDLA and hepatic arteriography pre-operation and death in hospital post-operation, one object suffered myocardial infarction post-operation. In addition, three cases received conservative treatment only, in which, one object died in hospital.Conclusions: It is difficult to distinguish primary liver cancer mimicking liver abscess from pyogenic liver abscess as there are no specific clinical manifestations and laboratory findings which is prone to leading to misdiagnosis. What’s worse, the prognosis is so poor that high alert and close follow-up are required as well as early diagnosis and treatment.