Efficacy and safety of CT-guided percutaneous catheter drainage in treatment of uniloculated deep neck abscesses

Abstract

Twenty-three patients with uniloculated deep neck abscesses(UDNA), in whom the antibiotic therapy failed and CT-guided percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD) was performed from January 2005 to June 2015, were included in the study.Catheter placement was carried out using Trocar technique in all cases.Open surgical drainage was performed when PCD procedures failed.The abscess was completely drained and open surgical drainage was avoided in 19 cases (83%); the surgical drainage was performed because of multiple internal septation in 3 (13%) case, and 1 (4%) case died from uremia.In this series the technical success rate and clinical success rate of PCD were 96% (22/23) and 83%(19/23), respectively.All patients were followed-up by CT scan.No other complications and no mortality occurred during the procedure, while postoperative pneumatosis developed in 1 case.CT-guided PDC is a safe and highly effective low-cost procedure for the treatment of patients with UDNA who failed medical therapy, it may be considered as an alternative to open surgery. Key words: Abscess, deep neck; Diabetes mellitus; Drainage, CT-guided