ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1567105
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Intra-Abdominal InfectionView all 3 articles
The microbiological features and risk factors for liver abscess after thermal ablation of liver cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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Objectives: Liver abscess is a severe complication that can occur following thermal ablation of liver cancer, with an incidence rate ranging from 0.2% to 2.4%. This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with the development of post-ablation liver abscesses and to characterize the microbiological features of the isolated pathogens.A matched case-control study was conducted at Beijing Youan Hospital from January 2018 to December 2023. Cases were defined as patients who developed liver abscesses within three months following ablation therapy, while controls comprised patients who did not develop such abscesses. Clinical and microbiological data were collected and analyzed. The relevant independent risk factors for the occurrence of liver abscesses were identified and assessed using multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: Post-ablation liver abscesses predominantly occurred in male patients aged 60 years or older, typically manifesting around six days after the procedure. Common symptoms included fever, chills, abdominal distension, and abdominal pain.Multivariate analysis identified diabetes mellitus (OR=3.215; 95% CI 1.330-7.771), history of abdominal surgery (OR=2.810; 95% CI 1.074 -7.353), biliary disease (OR=18.832; 95% CI 2.291-154.795), and elevated ALP levels (OR=1.010; 95% CI 1.002 -1.019) as independent risk factors for post-ablation liver abscesses. Among the 61 patients with liver abscesses, a total of 78 bacterial strains were isolated from the abscess fluid, with Gram-negative bacteria accounting for 75.6% of the isolates.Escherichia coli (30.8%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (20.5%) were the most frequently identified pathogens. Drug sensitivity testing revealed that both Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae exhibited high susceptibility to Amikacin, Cefoxitin, Ceftazidime, Imipenem, Meropenem, and Piperacillin-tazobactam.Post-ablation liver abscesses are primarily caused by Gram-negative bacteria. A history of diabetes, prior abdominal surgery, biliary disease, and elevated ALP levels are significant risk factors influencing the development of post-ablation liver abscesses.
Keywords: liver cancer, Thermal ablation, Liver Abscess, risk factor, Microbiological features
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ding, Yu, Lou, Chen and Kang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jinli Lou, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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