European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background:  Breast abscess continues to be a major cause of morbidity in developing countries. The treatment of breast abscess continues to be a challenge. In era of technical advances management of breast abscess has shifted to minimally invasive and painless techniques which are more patient friendly. Aims: to compare outcomes in management of breast abscess by incision and drainage versus ultrasound guided needle aspiration. Methods: The present study was carried out in the department of surgery in a tertiary care hospital central India.  A total of 100 female patients with acute lactational breast abscess between 18 and 45 years of age were enrolled in our study. The patients were randomized into group A (incision and surgical drainage) and group B (ultrasound-guided needle aspiration). Results: In our study total 100 patients were analysed, majority of the cases (53% in group A & 54% in group B) belong to 21-25 years age group. Post operative pain, high recurrence rate, fistula formation, cessation of breast feeding, ugly scar formation and longer duration of hospital stay were observed in incision & drainage procedure as compared to USG aspiration. Conclusions: USG guided aspiration is the safest, painless, day care and widely accepted procedure for treatment of breast abscess as compared to the incision and drainage, it reduced the post-procedure hospital stay and minimum scar formation