abcest on liver

Hello, my son was born on 12/28/08 and has been in NICU since birth.  one onf his lungs was not fully devolped and had a small hole causing air to escape and go into his chest.  he also had a high crp of 4.  well, his lungs got better, and he is off the ventialtor and breathing room ar (21) and his respitory system is excellent now.  but recently just a few days ago his umbillical lines placed in by the doctor had leaked and caused some of the fluids and antibiotics to leak into his belly and surround his liver, also causing his belly to swell.  after 2 days that his lines were removed and a catheter was placed into his left arm, his belly size went back down, but they did an ultrasound and discovered something on his liver.  the doctor had a catscan done, and the radiologist confirmed of small absest on the outside of his liver.  for about five days before we found out of the abcest his crp went up to 13, but showed no resp. problems, fever or other syptoms (symptoms) of illness.  the doctor avised us that he is on 8 different antibiotics trying to find the one that will remove the bacteria abcest from his liver.  today i found out his crp went from 13, down to 9.  i am scared and worried for my son. can someone please advice me?

[Yao Sun, MD, PhD]

The fact that your son does not have any respiratory problems or other signs of illness is reassuring, and probably indicates that the current antibiotic treatment is at least keeping the liver abscess from getting worse, and may be adequately treating the abscess.  Over time, the CRP should continue to drop as the infection is treated.

The doctors need to balance multiple factors in determing the antibiotics to use and how long to use them: possible side effects of the medications, the development of bacterial resistance, the possibility of secondary infections, and the length of time required to adequately treat an abscess.

It is not an easy task, and I'm sure your son's care team will keep you informed about the progress of the treatment.  It is likely that many weeks of treatment will be required to treat a true infectious abscess.

[dadsgift4]

i recenty posted a comment about my son who was said to have an abcest on his liver or possibly a tumor.  well the doctors took an mri and reaveled a large black area on his liver and they did not now what was wrong.  his crp continued to rise up to 13 but no sign of being sick.  they had him transported to loma linda hospital where specialist took over.  well, after he arrived the doctor took him off all 8 antibiotics the previous hosp put him on and said there was no need for so many antibiotics if they dont know what they are treating and placed him on only 3.  the following day a specialist did an ultrasound and looked over the mri from the other hospital and were able to determine what the large black area on his liver was and why it was so inflamed.  the liver specialist stated to us that the dark area on his liver were dead cells due to the umbillical cord i.v. line that were placed in him from the other hosp. the specialist also said the lines were placed in to far or wrong causing the meds. and other fluids that were being administered into the line to leak causing the liver to have inflamation (inflammation) and damage part of his liver.  the specialist said the liver was funtioning ok and he would probably suffer from scar tissue over time but would need to be seen as an out patient to moniter his liver funtion.  the doctors took him off all the antibiotics and i.v.s and his crp went from 13 to a .6 after a couple of days.  my son is home now thank the lord and is doing great.  accoording the the doctors the uvc lines placed into the babys cords are checked by x-ray to make sure the lines are in correctly and this is type of incident had not been seen there.  my question is, is the other hospital at fault for not checking the lines to be in place after having the lines in for over a week? would they be responsible for damaging my sons liver?? please help in anyway.