Abdominal abscesses: ultrasound guided percutaneous therapy

Percutaneous abscess drainage using cross-sectional imaging has become an accepted and important clinical tool. Most previous reports have emphasized the importance of CT as the primary study for guidance. Ultrasound has been suggested as a complementary as opposed to a primary guiding modality. This has been stated because of the complications that may result from possible incomplete visualization of intervening structures and demonstration of incomplete emptying. Our data of 91 abscess drainages in 66 patients treated with percutaneous abscess drainage and performed exclusively with ultrasound guidance, suggest that ultrasound is at least as useful and as accurate a tool for drainage as any other modality. An overall success of 89% was obtained and severe complications in general were less than previously reported utilizing CT. Out data suggest that ultrasound is certainly as useful a guiding technique for cross-sectional imaging when needed for localization and drainage of abscesses.