title: Tracking the foreign body, a rare cause of hepatic abscess.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Foreign body ingestion complicated by perforation of the digestive tract is a well-known occurrence. Contrary to this, perforation by fishbones has most often been described in South East Asian populations, and has the unusual characteristic of often being paucisymptomatic until secondary complications occur.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report the case of a 56 year-old man of asian origin who presented with a liver abscess of unknown origin, complicated by septic shock with multiorgan failure. He was later found to have a fishbone impacted in the left lobe of the liver, which had perforated the stomach and gone by unnoticed until presentation. The fishbone was extracted through laparotomy and the abscess was drained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This report highlights a cause of liver abscesses which is likely underreported in Northern European populations and which, although rare in occurrence, should be part of our diagnostic algorithm of "cryptogenic abscesses" since surgical removal of the foreign object as drainage warrant definitive treatment.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dangoisse
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Hippocrate, 10, 1200 Brussels, Belgium. pierre-francois.laterre@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Pierre-François
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Laterre
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones; D005399:Fishes; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008100:Liver Abscess / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure / Q000209:etiology; D012772:Shock, Septic / Q000209:etiology; D013270:Stomach / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed