Diagnostic Delay During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Liver Abscess Secondary to Acute Lithiasic Cholecystitis

The patient is a 70-year-old woman with hypertension, diabetes and hypertensive heart disease, who consulted for pain in the right hypochondrium that had been progressing for 2 weeks, associated with fever and vomiting. She presented with renal failure and refractory hypotension. Urgent CT scan showed acute lithiasic cholecystitis with a liver abscess measuring 13 cm. Urgent ultrasound-guided percutaneous drainage was performed in the operating room, initiating antibiotic therapy and hemodynamic support. After good clinical evolution, the patient was discharged on the tenth day (Figs. 1 and 2).

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Home confinement due to SARS-CoV-2 and the fear of becoming infected at the hospital have led to a serious delay in diagnoses, which means that surgeons will be faced with more complex surgical emergencies.