Needle aspiration as primary surgical treatment of pediatric deep neck space abscesses

Examination of the outcomes of needle aspiration (NA) under sedation as the primary surgical treatment for pediatric deep neck space abscesses (DNSA) to determine its adequacy, safety, and cost.

Retrospective chart review.

10 consecutive pediatric patients (age 4-48 months) that were diagnosed with DNSA starting from August 2008 through October 2015 were included in our review. All patients were on antibiotics and were treated with NA as the primary surgical treatment modality. Procedures were all performed in our pediatric sedation suite. We have examined our outcomes including need to convert to open incision and drainage (I&D), number of aspirations required, hospital stay, if purulence obtained, culture results, and imaging modality used. We also compared our results with previous studies using incision and drainage as the primary treatment modality focusing on the duration of their hospital stay.

None of our 10 patients required an open I&D. Two of 10 (20%) did require repeat aspiration once with no patient requiring more than two aspirations. Median hospital stay was 4 days (range 3-8).

In our small study group NA performed under sedation was an effective treatment modality with duration of hospital stay comparable to other studies that included treatment with I&D under general anesthesia.