Comparison of Outcome of Ultrasound guided Percutaneous Aspiration and Surgical Incision & Drainage of Acute Lactational Breast Abscess

Objective: To compare outcome of USG-guided percutaneous aspiration with surgical incision & drainage in Acute Lactational Breast Abscess. Study Design: Quasi-experiment study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Surgery, Combined Military Hospital, Kharian Pakistan, from Sept 2022 to Feb 2023. Methodology: All patients with acute lactational breast abscess were enrolled in study. Patients were distributed in 2 groups after opting preferred treatment technique and patients planned for ultrasound guided percutaneous drainage under local anesthesia were kept in group A whereas patient to be treated by traditional surgical incision and drainage under general anesthesia were in group B. Procedural outcomes in term of postoperative pain, healing time and cosmetic satisfaction were assessed in both groups. Results: Among 44 females were enrolled in study, minimum age was 22 years and maximum were 45 years with mean age of 32.82±6.50 years and 33.41±6.60 years in group A and group B respectively (p-value =0.772). Postoperative pain was same on 1st post-op day in both groups (p=0.019) while pain was much less in group A in comparison to group B on 2nd and 3rdpost-op day (p-value =0.0157). Healing time was less in group A who were treated by USG guided aspiration 10.41±4.8 days whereas in group B (surgical I & D) healing time was prolonged 18.32±2.9days (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Ultrasound guided percutaneous aspiration of lactational breast abscess is associated with less postoperative pain, quick healing and better cosmetic outcome and patient satisfaction.