Percutaneous drainage and aspiration of fluid collections: emphasis on pancreatic collections and transplant patients.

Percutaneous aspiration or drainage was the initial treatment of 104 fluid collections in 92 patients. Our success rate was 91%, with a 7% recurrence, 3% complication rate, and 4% mortality rate. Percutaneous drainage (PD) was beneficial in all but two patients, and open surgical drainage was avoided in 84 patients. Included are 18 patients who had pancreatic fluid collections treated, with one drainage failure and one death in this subgroup. Of these patients, 50% had fistulae discovered after drainage, a higher rate than in the patients without pancreatic disease (33%). There are also 10 patients with transplants and subsequent fluid collections, all successfully treated by PD. We conclude that percutaneous abscess drainage techniques are as valuable in the more difficult pancreatic and transplant patients as they are in other patients.