[A case of abdominal actinomycosis].

A 43-year-old man, with a chief complaint of abdominal pain and a palpable mass in the lower abdomen, was admitted to this hospital. He had 2-3 episodes of diarrhea monthly for several years. Laparotomy revealed the mass resembling sarcoma, invaded the ileum and bladder and also it had disseminated lesions in the other intraabdominal organs. Resected tissues showed actinomycotic abscess. AB-PC was administered post-operatively, with a satisfactory prognosis. On the 71 patients with abdominal actinomycosis who underwent laparotomy during the past 32 years in Japan, 42 were males and 28 females. Many of them were in their forties or fifties. Some literatures mention the ileocecal region as the usual site of following perforated appendicitis. As far as this review is concerned, however, the transverse colon was as frequently affected as the ileocecal region and it was only in 13 patients that acute appendicitis preceded the infection. Abdominal actinomycosis is not an uncommon disease and should be taken into consideration in the differential diagnosis of the abdominal mass.