Risk factors indicating the need for surgical therapy in patients with pyogenic liver abscesses.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous drainage (PD) and antibiotics are the therapy of choice (non-surgical therapy [non-ST]) for pyogenic liver abscesses (PLA), reserving surgical therapy (ST) for PD failure. The aim of this retrospective study was to identify risk factors that indicate the need for ST. METHODS: We reviewed the medical charts of all of our institution's adult patients with a diagnosis of PLA between January 2000 and November 2020. A series of 296 patients with PLA was divided into two groups according to the therapy used: ST (n = 41 patients) and non-ST (n = 255). A comparison between groups was performed. RESULTS: The overall median age was 68 years. Demographics, clinical history, underlying pathology, and laboratory variables were similar in both groups, except for the duration of PLA symptoms < 10 days and leukocyte count which were significantly higher in the ST group. The in-hospital mortality rate in the ST group was 12.2% vs. 10.2% in the non-ST group (p = 0.783), with biliary sepsis and tumor-related abscesses as the most frequent causes of death. Hospital stay and PLA recurrence were statistically insignificant between groups. One-year actuarial patient survival was 80.2% in the ST group vs. 84.6% in the non-ST (p = 0.625) group. The presence of underlying biliary disease, intra-abdominal tumor, and duration of symptoms for less than 10 days on presentation comprised the risk factors that indicated the need to perform ST. CONCLUSIONS: There is little evidence regarding the decision to perform ST, but according to this study, the presence of underlying biliary disease or an intra-abdominal tumor and the duration of PLA symptoms < 10 days upon presentation are risk factors that should sway the surgeons to perform ST instead of PD.

Presacral and intrathoracic extramedullary hematopoiesis in a patient with ß thalassemia minor.

Extramedullary hematopoiesis (EMH) is a rare disease characterized by the presence of hematopoietic elements outside the bone marrow as a compensatory phenomenon in several hematological diseases, including thalassemia. We report a 64-year-old man with epigastric pain of 3-months' duration radiated to the back. Imaging workup showed multiple paravertebral, retrosternal and presacral masses. Cytology findings obtained by CT-guided FNAC were compatible with the diagnosis of EMH. Peripheral blood smear confirmed the presence of ß-thalassemia.