Abstract:

Objective

To investigate the clinical application value of ultrasound-guided needle aspiration for lactational breast abscess.

Methods

A total of 99 patients with lactational breast abscess(≥2 pus cavities) admitted in Chengdu Women and Children's Central Hospital between May 2012 and October 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Fifty-one patients received ultrasound-guided needle aspiration(needle aspiration group), while 48 received incision and drainage (incision and drainage group). The times of aspiration/dressing change, hospital stay and hospitalization expense, rate of milk withdrawal and rate of breast fistula were compared between these two groups. χ² test was used for comparison on rates, and t test was used for comparison on times of aspiration/dressing change. Because of the skewed distribution and heterogeneous variance, the data on hospital stay and hospitalization expense were expressed as M(P₂₅ ～P₇₅)and compared by rank sum test.

Results

The detected indexes in needle aspiration group were all significantly lower than those in incision and drainage group, including times of aspiration/dressing change (2.1±1.0 vs 4.1±1.0, t=-10.003, P＜0.001), hospital stay [ 7(6-8) d vs 10(8-12) d, Z=-6.026, P＜0.001],hospitalization expense [3 808.0(3 381.7-4 328.1) yuan vs 5 824.9(4 937.1-8 329.0) yuan, Z=-6.872,P＜0.001], rate of milk withdrawal [58.8%(30/51) vs 95.8%(46/48),χ²=18.991, P＜0.001] and rate of breast fistula [0 vs 37.5% (18/48), χ² = 23.375, P ＜0.001].

Conclusion

Ultrasound-guided needle aspiration has significant advantages over incision and drainage for the treatment of lactational breast abscess,including fewer times of aspiration/dressing change, shorter hospital stay, lower hospitalization expense,decreased rate of milk withdrawal and breast fistula, regarded as an effective method for clinical application.

Key words: Breast diseases, Lactation, Abscess, Drainage