Inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver associated with extrahepatic infection.

We present two cases that support an infectious cause of inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver. Each patient had sepsis due to chronic abdominal abscesses, along with a liver mass. Both patients had exploratory celiotomy, and histologic examination of the liver mass revealed inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver. Evidence of a mixed bacterial/Actinomyces infection was noted in hepatic tissue sections in one patient, and Bacteroides caccae was cultured directly from the liver biopsy in the other patient. This is the first known report of bacteria being cultured from biopsy specimens of a hepatic pseudotumor and the only reported case of Actinomyces within a hepatic pseudotumor. Clinical and pathologic findings in these two cases indicate that an extrahepatic infectious source should be explored as a potential cause of inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver.