Tuberculous liver abscess

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is common in South Africa but tuberculous liver abscess (TLA) is extremely rare entity with a prevalence of 0.35% of patients with hepatic TB. Less than 25 cases were reported in the literature prior to 2003. Focal TB of the liver can be manifested by single or multiple tuberculous abscesses. These occur more frequently in immunocompromised patients and are associated with foci of infection in the lung and or gastrointestinal tract. We describe a case of focal TLA in a patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).