Liver metastasis presenting as an abscess

ASY Fung
Department of Surgery, Kwong Wah Hospital, 25 Waterloo Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

A 37-year-old woman with a history of nasopharyngeal carcinoma presented with a typical clinical and radiological picture of a pyogenic liver abscess, which was confirmed by a purulent aspirate and bacteriological culture. The abscess did not resolve after two months and although cytological results did not support a diagnosis of cancer, the lesion proved to be a metastasis on biopsy.

Hong Kong Med J 1996;2:102-3

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; Liver abscess; Diagnosis, differential