1994 Volume 55 Issue 8 Pages 1980-1984
Recently we experienced two extremely rare case of iliopsoas abscess caused by local injection of Xylocaine. Case 1 in a 78-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of pain in the left leg and difficulty in walking. There was a previous history of receiving local injection of Xylocaine for lumbago lasting for these several years. The left hip joint was kept flexed, indicating psoas position. A computed tomographic scan (CT) showed a low density area in the left enlarged iliopsoas muscle. Under the diagnosis of left iliopsoas abscess, drainage was performed immediately with symptomatic remission.
Case 2 in a 31-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of remittent fever and severe hip joint pain after local injection of Xylocaine at the right lumbar and gluteal regions respectively for lumbago. A T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed high intensity, well-defined and homogeneous lesions in aforementioned area, representing formation of abscess. Drainage was performed respectively with good outcome. In Case 1 Pseudomonour aergmosa was isolated, and in Case 2 Sta-phylococcur aureur was isolated respectively.
CT and MRI were considered useful modalities in the diagnosis of iloopsoas abscess. The manipula-tion of local injection should be done aseptically, because it was considered the etiology of iliopsoas abscess in our two cases.
