Percutaneous drainage of splenic abscess in a renal transplant recipient – A case report

Abstract

Splenic abscess is a rare clinical entity with an incidence of 0.2–0.7% in autopsy-based studies.1,2 Moreover, abscess of the spleen is a very rare entity in post-renal transplant recipients. We encountered a rare case of this life-threatening infection in a 32-year-old gentleman who had undergone live related renal transplant 8 months ago. He presented with fever, malaise, left upper quadrant pain and non-productive cough. Computed tomography (CT) of the chest taken to assess the lower chest signs and ultrasound abdomen taken to assess the left upper quadrant pain revealed a large thick walled abscess (8cm×7cm×7.5cm) in the spleen. He made a complete recovery after percutaneous pig tail catheter drainage of splenic abscess and intravenous antibiotics for 3 weeks.