Percutaneous Suction Drain Versus Conventional Incision and Drainage for the Management of Acute Breast Abscess: A...

Background Acute breast abscess is a common surgical condition requiring prompt and effective drainage for optimal resolution. Conventional incision and drainage (I&D), although widely practiced, is associated with significant postoperative morbidity, including increased pain, prolonged wound care, delayed healing, and unsatisfactory cosmetic outcomes. These limitations have led to growing interest in minimally invasive alternatives such as percutaneous suction drain (PSD) placement, which may offer comparable efficacy with reduced morbidity. The present study was undertaken to compare PSD placement with I&D in terms of postoperative pain, number of dressings required, duration of hospital stay, wound healing time, and complications. Methods A prospective comparative study was conducted at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College, Kanpur, India, from May 2025 to February 2026. Eighty women (age >18 years, abscess >3 cm on ultrasonography) were allocated using an alternating odd-even allocation method to the I&D (n=40) or PSD (n=40) and followed for three months. Results The PSD group demonstrated significantly shorter hospital stays (2.60 vs 4.90 days; p<0.001), lower postoperative Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain scores (4.20 vs 6.88; p<0.001), faster wound healing (11.55 vs 22.12 days; p<0.001), and fewer dressings required (5.92 vs 13.88; p<0.001). Complication rates like residual abscess (p=0.709), fistula (p=0.608), and three-month recurrence (p=0.709) were numerically lower in the PSD group but did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion Percutaneous suction drainage appears to be an effective alternative to conventional I&D for breast abscesses >3 cm and was associated with reduced pain, shorter hospital stay, faster wound healing, and fewer dressings in this study.