The spleen is enlarged. Abscesses may also occur following hepatic transplantation. Clinical findings are nonspecific with fever and jaundice being the most common. Diagnosis is best made by contrast-enhanced CT or ultrasound. Pyogenic abscesses are usually solitary and often multiloculated with thickened enhancing walls.
Amoebic abscesses are also solitary lesions.
Pyogenic abscesses may be distinguished from amoebic abscesses on the basis of clinical findings. Whereas patients with pyogenic abscesses are usually septic, patients with amoebic abscesses are not, and they usually have a history of travel to an endemic area. Pyogenic abscesses require drainage while amoebic abscesses do not and may be treated with antibiotics. Hepatic infarcts may also occur following hepatic transplantation. Partial or complete hepatic artery obstruction may present as lobar areas of inhomogeneous low attenuation and may require retransplantation.