Bacterial Infections Involving the Liver.

A wide variety of bacterial pathogens have been demonstrated to cause hepatic infection, leading to a range of clinical manifestations, including subclinical hepatitis, liver abscess, cholestatic hepatitis, and rarely fulminant hepatic failure. These organisms exhibit different epidemiology; some are transmitted through inhalation, others by an insect vector or animal exposure. A patient's exposure history, combined with the clinical findings and presence of hepatic dysfunction, may provide clues to the underlying diagnosis and have prognostic implications. This section will review the most important or characteristic bacterial infections involving the liver, focusing on the patterns and severity of liver dysfunction and treatment.