Drainage of intraabdominal abscesses. Tactics and choices.

The experience in treating 44 intraabdominal abscesses in 30 patients using percutaneous or surgical drainage was analyzed. Ultrasonography or computerized tomography-guided percutaneous drainage was highly satisfactory for the definitive treatment of single, accessible collections. Complex, multilocular, and phlegmonous lesions can also be treated by percutaneous drainage as a temporizing measure. Abscesses that are inaccessible, contain large amounts of necrotic material or are ill-defined, as well as those that have not responded to percutaneous drainage, require surgical exploration. Using these principles, there was only one death from sepsis in this series and three significant complications.