Drainage of intraabdominal abscesses. A comparison of surgical and computerized tomography guided catheter drainage.

Over an 18 month period, 130 patients were sent to the radiology department for diagnostic CT scans to localize intraabdominal abscesses. Of these patients, 71 (55 percent) were diagnosed as having intraabdominal abscesses. Fifty-one surgical procedures and 17 radiologic drainage procedures were done. The cure rate of patients undergoing an operative procedure was 88 percent, and the major complication rate was 23 percent. The cure rate of patients undergoing CT guided catheter drainage was 47 percent and the complication rate was 6 percent. CT guided catheter drainage may be the initial treatment of choice in institutions that specialize in invasive procedures performed by radiologists. However, in institutions that have not concentrated their efforts on this problem, the results may not be as good, and it may not be wise to assume these data have general applicability. Greater cooperative efforts between departments of radiology and surgery should lead to better results in treatment of intraabdominal abscesses and better understanding of the best methods of treating them.