Self-Induced Abscesses: A Diagnostic and Treatment Enigma

Abstract

This conference deals with the case of a 22-year-old woman whose left leg had been amputated following the spreading infection of subcutaneous abscesses. When similar abscesses later developed on her right leg, the possibility that her recurrent abscesses might be self-induced was considered and eventually verified. Her subsequent medical and psychiatric course is discussed, and the perplexing problem of how to treat the patient with factitious disease is considered.