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Unexpected Findings on Point‐of‐Care Superficial Ultrasound Imaging Before Incision and Drainage
Author(s) -
Blaivas Michael,
Adhikari Srikar
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/jum.2011.30.10.1425
Subject(s) - medicine , incision and drainage , ultrasound , abscess , drainage , surgery , point of care ultrasound , radiology , interrogation , ecology , biology , history , archaeology
Cutaneous abscesses are typically incised and drained on the basis of clinical assessment. In most cases this procedure is a safe practice. We report 6 cases in which point‐of‐care ultrasound interrogation of obvious abscesses revealed potential serious complications with planned incision and drainage. Management was altered in 5 of 6 cases, and potential vascular disasters were avoided. In 1 case, the ultrasound results were ignored, and incision and drainage was completed, confirming the suspected abscess was indeed a solid mass later diagnosed as a carcinoma. In this case series, point‐of‐care ultrasound interrogation provided rapid assessment and discovery of potentially catastrophic anatomic relationships, avoiding serious complications.