Background and Clinical Significance: Cirrhosis-associated immune dysfunction (CAID) is characterized by impaired innate and adaptive immune responses, gut dysbiosis, and increased bacterial translocation, predisposing patients to severe and atypical infections. While spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and other intra-abdominal infections are well-recognized complications of cirrhosis, extraintestinal infectious manifestations related to bacterial translocation are less commonly described. A tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA) typically arises from ascending pelvic infections associated with pelvic inflammatory disease and is rarely reported in patients with cirrhosis without gynecologic risk factors. Thus, recognizing unusual infectious presentations in cirrhotic patients is important given their functionally immunocompromised state. Case Presentation: We report a 46-year-old woman with previously undiagnosed alcohol-related cirrhosis who presented with sepsis and abdominal pain. She had no prior gynecologic history or known risk factors for pelvic inflammatory disease. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) demonstrated bilateral tubo-ovarian abscesses. Image-guided percutaneous drainage was performed, and cultures from both ascitic fluid and bilateral adnexal collections grew Enterococcus faecium, supporting a shared intra-abdominal source of infection and suggesting transperitoneal dissemination via infected ascitic fluid as a plausible mechanism, although an ascending genital tract source cannot be fully excluded. The patient was treated with targeted intravenous antibiotics and drainage with subsequent clinical improvement. Conclusions: This case highlights bilateral tubo-ovarian abscesses as a rare infectious complication of cirrhosis-associated immune dysfunction. In cirrhotic patients presenting with sepsis and intra-abdominal pathology, clinicians should consider atypical infection pathways related to bacterial translocation among the differential mechanisms of spread. Thus, recognizing cirrhosis as a functionally immunocompromised state is essential for the timely diagnosis and management of unusual infections.
Albusta et al. (Fri,) studied this question.