Title

Right Ventricular Pneumocardia Secondary to Hepatic Abscesses.

Sanford School of Medicine Affiliation

Transplantation and Surgery

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Surgery

Publication Date

11-3-2010

Keywords

Pneumocardia, Hepatic abscess, Right ventricle, Clostridium perfringens

Abstract

Gas-filled abscesses and gas gangrenes are extremely rare causes of intrahepatic gas. Even rarer, however, is the occurrence of gas within the non-portal hepatic veins. Most often seen in diabetic patients, dissemination and hepatic seeding of bacteria has been linked to procedures such as femoral catheters as well as liver lacerations and pyelonephritis. We report the case of a 69-year-old relatively healthy male who presented to our emergency department with abdominal pain and a fever of 103.3°F (39.6°C). A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan of the abdomen revealed multiple hepatic abscesses and gas within the hepatic venous system as well as pneumocardia. In conclusion, gas within the non-portal hepatic veins is usually an indication of a serious underlying condition and its immediate identification is essential for treatment as hematogenous dissemination has already begun.

Journal Title

Case Rep Gastroenterol

Volume

4

Issue

3

First Page

498

Last Page

501

PubMed ID

21103210

ISSN

1662-0631

Rights

Karger Open Access

DOI

10.1159/000321158

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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