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The Inaccessible or Undrainable Abscess: How to Drain It¹

¹ From the Division of Abdominal Imaging and Intervention, Massachusetts General Hospital, White 270, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA 02114. Recipient of a Certificate of Merit award for an education exhibit at the 2001 RSNA scientific assembly. Received April 9, 2003; revision requested July 8 and received September 22; accepted September 23. All authors have no financial relationships to disclose. Address correspondence to P.R.M. (e-mail: pmueller@partners.org).

Percutaneous abscess drainage is a safe, effective, and widely used technique for the treatment of patients with abdominal or pelvic sepsis. The majority of abdominal and pelvic abscesses afford reasonably straightforward access and are amenable to percutaneous drainage. However, requests are occasionally received for drainage of abscesses or fluid collections that initially appear unsuitable for percutaneous drainage. Factors that render collections seemingly unsuitable for imaging-guided drainage include inaccessibility due to surrounding organs, difficult location, and thickened contents (eg, clotted blood, thick pus). Well-established alternative approaches (eg, transgluteal, transvaginal, transrectal) can be used to facilitate drainage of deep-seated collections that are inaccessible via more traditional routes. Other factors that may improve the accessibility of collections include modifications in patient positioning or in the use of imaging hardware (eg, angling of the computed tomography scanner gantry). Use of these techniques and modifications can allow percutaneous drainage of less accessible intraabdominal abscesses, thus eliminating the need for laparotomy.

© RSNA, 2004

Index Terms: Abdomen, abscess, _**.242² • Abscess, CT, _**.1211 • Abscess, percutaneous drainage • Abscess, US, _**.1298 • Catheters and catheterization • Computed tomography (CT), guidance • Ultrasound (US), catheter identification • Ultrasound (US), guidance • Ultrasound (US), transvaginal

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