Persistent ischiorectal fistula with supralevator origin secondary to a chronic tubo-ovarian abscess: report of a case and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND

Chronic tubo-ovarian abscess is an uncommon finding in postmenopausal women. This abscess may rupture or fistulize to adjacent organs into the ischiorectal space.

CASE: A gravida three, para three, postmenopausal woman with extensive sigmoid diverticulosis presented with perianal fistula of 2 years' duration. Magnetic resonance imaging showed the tract to have a supralevator origin adjacent to the sigmoid colon. She had no recent instrumentation other than preoperative colonoscopy. Intraoperatively, the fistula tract origin was noted to be from a right tubo-ovarian abscess. She was treated with right salpingo-oophorectomy and tract excision/sealing. At 4-month follow-up, the fistula tract was healed with no further drainage.

CONCLUSIONS

Tubo-ovarian abscess should be considered in the differential diagnosis of supralevator fistula in postmenopausal women when no other source can be localized.