Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Infection, Acute, Abscess, Diagnostic procedure, Comparative studies, Abscess delineation, Ultrasound, Digital radiography, CT, Liver, Kidney, Biliary Tract / Gallbladder
Authors:
G. Carbo1, L. Valls Masot1, G. Sanchez1, V. Garriga2, V. Cheranovskiy3, A. Gimeno4, C. V. Nadal1, A. Maroto1, S. Pedraza1; 1Girona/ES, 2Santa Maria de Palautordera/ES, 3Sabadell, Barcelona/ES, 4Barcelona, Barcelona/ES
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-2334
Background
Acute abdominal pathology represents a substantial part of radiological emergencies.
From this,
emphysematous abdomino-pelvic infections,
although infrequent,
are potentially life-threatening entities that tend to appear insidiously in patients with multiples comorbidities and,
often lead to a rapid progression towards sepsis.
Certain underlying conditions such as diabetes and local ischemia play an important role in gas-forming infections by certain bacterial species that will end up producing this type of emphysematous conditions.
Most of these infections require aggressive medical treatment and sometimes interventional imaging-guided procedures or surgery to evacuate the purulent content.
Therefore,
a quick and accurate diagnosis is essential to enhance both treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes.
CT is the most sensitive and specific tool for abdominal gas detection,
although the imaging diagnosis can also be performed in certain cases by simple x-ray or ultrasound.