complications
Last reviewed 01/2018
Possible complications include:
- toxic dilatation of the colon with perforation and peritonitis
- stricture formation as a result of chronic infection
- severe haemorrhage
- development of an amoeboma (a mass of fibrotic granulation tissue). This occurs in about 10% of patients and usually occurs in the caecum or rectosigmoid colon. An amoeboma may cause intussusception or intestinal obstruction, and may be mistaken for a carcinoma.
- abscess, most commonly, to the liver via the hepatic portal vein - hepatic amoebiasis
- acute pericarditis - this may be a complication of an abscess on the left lobe of the liver