ABSTRACT
Liver abscess was recognized in the time of Hippocrates, but was first recorded in modern medical literature during the first part of the nineteenth century.1,2 These early observations noted that this condition was almost invariably fatal, a viewpoint supported by several reports that appeared around the beginning of the 1900s.3,4 The landmark description by Oschner in 1938 of a 62% survival rate in a patient series treated by surgical drainage was the first report to demonstrate any real progress in the treatment of liver abscess.5 Combined with the rapid developments in antibiotic therapy, surgical drainage remained the mainstay of treatment for the next two decades. Percutaneous drainage was first reported in 1953.6 More recently, in parallel with other developments in minimal access techniques, radiologically-guided non-operative drainage has effectively replaced surgical drainage in all but a few circumstances.7
