To cite: Illah OH. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2013201476 DESCRIPTION An 80-year-old woman presented with a large recurrent abdominal wall abscess in the right upper quadrant (figure 1A) with no associated symptoms. Her medical history revealed one previous episode of cholecystitis with gallstones 8 years ago, which resolved without surgical in...

POEMS Syndrome is a rare cause of demyelinating and axonal mixed neuropathy. Plasmacytomas are usually seen in POEMS syndrome and can be osseous or extramedullary. Plasmacytomas presenting as an abscess has not been noted earlier. Our patient presented with localized hyperpigmented patch on the back and later developed progressive weakness in upper and lower limbs. Initially serum and urine pro...

Chromoblastomycosis is a rare chronic fungal infection of skin and subcutaneous tissue. It is primarily a disease of tropical and subtropical regions and affects mainly the agricultural workers following trauma with vegetable matter. Cutaneous Chromoblastomycosis may clinically mimic cutaneous tuberculosis as both the condition usually presents with hyper pigmented verrucous lesion of skin. Her...

Parapharyngeal abscess is a life-threatening disease. Upper respiratory tract infection is the main cause in children. We present a 15-month-old boy admitted to the emergency ward with the chief complaint of difficulty in breathing caused by parapharyngealabscess. His condition deteriorated gradually, and he transferred to the operation theater quickly for abscess drainage and because of the di...

A 40-year-old diabetic man presented to the emergency department with fever and abdomen pain for 2 days. On examination, the patient had a painless swollen scrotum with predominant left-sided subcutaneous emphysema extending from anterior abdominal wall. Urinalysis contained more than 100 red blood cells and 0–1 white blood cells per high-power field in spun urine sediment. An abdominal plain f...

Mixed infections with three Fusobacterium species and seven other bacterial species were studied in a subcutaneous abscess model in mice. Fifteen Fusobacterium isolates (eight F. nucleatum, four F. necrophorum, and three F. varium) and one isolate each of Bacteroides fragilis, B. asaccharolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Group A beta-haemolytic streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumon...

Anal pain is a common presentation in colorectal clinic. Accurate diagnosis often requires examination under anaesthesia as pain prevents careful assessment. This report intends to highlight a rare cause of a superficial perianal fistula caused by an ingested foreign body. A 36-year-old Afro-Caribbean gentleman underwent examination under anaesthesia of rectum. He had a 2-week history of perian...

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is considered relatively safe but semi-invasive. The hypopharyngeal and esophageal injury is infrequent complication of TEE but could be serious, even life-threatening. We present a case of a 74-year-old man who experienced a deep neck infection secondary to hypopharyngeal injury following TEE. The diagnosis was made because of the subcutaneous emphysema d...