A Comparative Prospective Study of Characteristics and Associated Morbidity in Culture Positive Liver Abscess (CPLA) with Culture Negative Liver Abscess (CNLA)

Background: There are limited studies focusing on liver abscess with negative microbiological cultures. This study evaluated the clinical and prognostic differences of patients with culture-negative liver abscess (CNLA) compared to those with a positive culture (CPLA) and compared these factors between K. pneumoniae liver abscess (KLA) and E. coli liver abscess (ELA). Methods: A prospective study of the patients who admitted with a liver abscess at tertiary care hospital at SMIMER medical college and municipal hospital, surat from November 19? to april 21?. Results: Among a total of 19 patients with liver abscess, 30.50% had positive cultures. K. pneumoniae (n = 36) was the most common cause, followed by E. coli (n = 16). Patients with CPLA were significantly older (p = 0.07) and more frequently had cholelithiasis or biliary tract disease (p = 0.03) compared to patients with CNLA. In-hospital mortality (p = 0.01) and recurrence (p = 0.07) were no different between the two groups. The length of hospital stay was significantly longer in patients with CPLA (p = 0.03) compared with those with CNLA. Conclusions: Our study suggests that prognosis including presentation as sepsis and recurrence rates were no different in CNLA and CPLA group however Metastatic infections and in hospital mortality were significantly higher and CPLA group compared to CNLA group. Clinical parameters and laboratory parameters were different between both CNLA and CPLA groups and mean hospital stay was higher in CPLA group compared to CNLA group.