Infant botulism mimicking an acute abdomen.

Botulism is the acute, flaccid paralysis caused by a neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum. In the infant, clinical symptoms are usually unspecific such as poor feeding, weak suck, feeble cry, drooling, followed by a symmetric, descending, flaccid paralysis beginning with the cranial nerve musculature. The initial symptoms of the disease are often similar to several diseases and therefore differential diagnosis is very difficult and rarely suspected by the physician. Since 2004 only 22 cases of infant botulism have been reported in Italy. Since most paediatricians are unfamiliar with the clinical manifestations of infant botulism, the diagnosis can be easily missed. Hence the disease may well be underestimated and underreported. We report a clinical case of botulism presenting initially with abdominal distention, thereby mimicking acute abdomen.