Childhood Plasmodium falciparum malaria complicated by splenic abscess

Authors: Thapa, Rajoo; Ghosh, Apurba¹; Banerjee, Tapanjyoti²

Source: Emergency Medicine Australasia, Volume 21, Number 3, June 2009 , pp. 237-239(3)

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Abstract:

We report on an 8-year-old girl with Plasmodium falciparum malaria complicated by splenic abscess during the course of her infection. The diagnosis of malaria was based upon the demonstration of trophozoites of P. falciparum in the peripheral blood smear. The trophozoites of the same organism were visualized on the Giemsa-stained smear prepared from the percutaneous splenic aspirate specimen. The patient failed to respond to parenteral Artesunate alone, which demanded emergent splenectomy. To our knowledge, this is the first report of splenic abscess complicating the course of childhood P. falciparum malaria in the English literature.

Keywords: child; falciparum malaria; splenic abscess

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-6723.2009.01188.x

Affiliations: 1: Departments of Pediatrics and 2: Pediatric Surgery, Institute of Child Health, West Bengal, India

Publication date: 2009-06-01