Percutaneous management of pancreatic abscesses: long term results in a single center

Several authors consider that surgical intervention is the gold standard for treatment of pancreatic abscesses. Recently, considerable interest has been generated in the minimally invasive management of pancreatic abscess with mixed results reported in the literature.

To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous aspiration and/or drainage for patients with pancreatic abscesses.

We performed a retrospective analysis of 62 patients with 87 pancreatic abscesses treated by percutaneous management from 1989 to 2009. All patients received appropriate antibiotic therapy. Patients with pancreatic abscess <50mm in diameter were initially treated by ultrasound-guided percutaneous needle aspiration (PNA) and those with abscess ≥50mm were initially treated by ultrasound-guided percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD). Surgery was planned only when there was no clinical improvement after the initial percutaneous treatment. Primary outcome was conversion rate to surgery.

Two patients (3.2%) received supportive treatment only and one of them died. PNA was performed in 16 patients (25.8%), and 8 of them required PCD because of recurrence of abscess. In 44 patients (70.1%), PCD was performed initially. PCD was performed twice in 6 patients and 3 times in 2 patients. There were 5 patients converted to surgery (8.1%) and one of them died. Medians (interquartile ranges) of hospital stay and catheter dwell-time were 17 (12-26) and 12 (9-21) days, respectively. There were no complications related to the procedure.

Percutaneous aspiration and/or drainage are effective and safe for the treatment of pancreatic abscesses.