A Gas-forming Liver Abscess with Massive Bleeding into the Abscess Cavity Due to a Ruptured Inferior Phrenic Artery

Abstract

An 88-year-old woman developed a huge abscess, forming an air-fluid level in the right lobe of the liver. A pigtail catheter was placed and drained thick pus with putrid odor from the abscess cavity. Gram-positive rods were detected in the pus, which were subsequently determined to be Clostridium perfringens by culture. She developed hemorrhaging in the abscess cavity when the right inferior phrenic artery was damaged by inflammation that had spread from the abscess. Emergency transarterial embolization with gelatin sponges was performed, and the bleeding ceased. We herein report a rare case of liver abscess that caused inferior phrenic artery injury, resulting in bleeding.