Abscess

Having diagnosed Eric Davis' affliction, though uncertain of its cause, Orioles team doctors believe the outfielder likely will need two to three weeks to recover fully from an abscess in his abdomen.Dr. William Goldiner said yesterday that Davis has shown significant improvement since Thursday, when doctors were still uncertain of what had caused a 3 1/2 -inch mass to develop inside Davis' abdomen. Further tests revealed the abscess, which Goldiner said has shrunken significantly in the past two days as Davis has been treated with antibiotics.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- City by Night was scratched from the Kentucky Derby yesterday after developing an abscess in his left front foot.The long-shot winner of the Lexington Stakes two weeks ago was a member of the five-horse Derby mutuel field. His trainer, Patrick Byrne, said the colt probably stepped on something and bruised his foot."He is tender on it, and he is going to be fine in a day or two," said Byrne. "If this was four days ago, we'd be in great shape. But the day before the Derby is not enough time.

Edda Ciano, 84, who renounced her family name after her father, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, ordered her husband's execution, died Saturday in a Rome hospital, where she was admitted 10 days earlier. Her doctor said she had been weakened by an operation to remove a kidney abscess. RAI state television said she was the first Italian woman to publicly drive a car and to wear pants.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Two horses have been pulled out of tomorrow's Breeders' Cup races because they are either lame or sick, and a third may suffer the same fate.Call Now, the 5-1 second choice in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies stakes, was withdrawn yesterday morning after she developed a fever and came down with a slight bout of colic (upset stomach).Pineing Patty, a 30-1 long shot in the $1 million Juvenile Colts race, also developed a high temperature and was scratched by his trainer, Lynn Whiting, because he felt "very dull."

A 45-year-old Halethorpe woman drowned in her bathtub last year because an emergency room doctor misdiagnosed the source of her abdominal pain, a lawyer for the woman's estate says in a complaint filed yesterday with the state's health claims arbitration board.Sandra Ann Wright should have been admitted for treatment for an abdominal abscess -- and not sent home with a prescription for antibiotics to combat a urinary tract infection -- after being examined and tested Dec. 20, 1991, at St. Agnes Hospital, the complaint states.