Pyogenic Liver Abscesses Secondary to Carcinoma of the Sigmoid Colon

We report a case of liver abscesses associated with sigmoid colon cancer in an 81-year-old woman. The patient was referred to our hospital because of a tumorous lesion of the sigmoid colon. Five days before the scheduled operation, she presented abdominal pain, fever and chill. Imaging scans revealed multiple liver abscesses in both lobes, which were successfully treated with intravenously administered antibiotics. Two weeks later, the patient underwent laparoscopic-assisted sigmoidectomy. Nineteen cases of liver abscess associated with colonic cancer have been reported during the past ten years in Japan, and we report the clinical features of these cases in this paper. All aggressive search for the underlying cause of pyogenic liver abscess should be an integral part of the definitive treatment of this disease.