[Percutaneous drainage of infected abdominal collections. Guiding principles and results]

The authors report their results with percutaneous drainage of 29 abdominal abscesses in 28 patients. Two types of catheters were used: the pigtail angio-catheter and the trocar-catheter. CT scan and ultrasonography were the diagnostic technics used to localize the majority of these collections (20). Seventeen abscesses (58.6%) were cured by this drainage technique. Surgical drainage was necessary in 10 patients (34.4%). Six patients died: 4 of those had surgical drainage and 2 percutaneous drainage only. The cause of death in all cases was multiple organ failure secondary to a virulent noncontrolled infection. Analysis of the results uncovers 3 poor indications for percutaneous drainage: the digestive fistulous tract abscess, acute necrotic pancreatitis with secondary infection and the multi-loculated abscess. The best results are obtained in the case with a hepatic or left subdiaphragmatic abscess. No serious complication was related to the technique itself.