Right Adrenal Abscess – An Unusual Complication of Acute Apendicitis

Abstract

Acute appendicitis represents one of the most frequent abdominal emergencies encountered in everyday surgical practice. Local infectious complications are not unusual and retroperitoneal abscesses after acute retrocaecal appendicitis have been previously described. The authors present the case of a 22-years-young female patient, admitted for a right iliac fossa abscess, secondary to gangrenous appendicitis. A right adrenal mass 35/40mm was revealed during preoperative ultrasound evaluation, which evolved in an adrenal abscess that spontaneously drained 10 days after appendectomy and retrocecal drainage. Adrenal abscesses are exceptionally rare, with only a few cases being reported in the literature, but none of these after acute appendicitis.