Clinical Picture of Hepatic Amebiasis

Abstract

I am not going to try to discuss the total problem of hepatic amebiasis in this period of time, of course. I thought it might be well to pick out three aspects of the clinical picture which are of current importance. I want to say something first about the evolution of our knowledge of the clinical picture. When the relationship of solitary abscess of the liver to amebiasis was first recognized, it became perfectly clear that a clinical entity in the liver resulting from E. histolytica occurred and that abscess developed. The picture of abscess is an advanced picture. The process should be recognized long before it reaches this stage, although there are individuals who have so few symptoms that they may not consult a physician until they have an abscess dangerously close to rupture. But those patients are few and far between.