The association between patient age, abscess size, and white blood cell count on duration of catheter stay for percutaneous abscess drainage of abdominal abscesses.

OBJECTIVE: Knowing factors that impact catheter stay duration is important since removing drainage catheters too early or late can have significant consequences. We present a single center retrospective study that analyzes multiple variables, including abscess size, white blood cell count, and patient age, to see if a correlation between them and duration of catheter stay exists. The inclusion criteria were patients that had abdominal abscesses treated with percutaneous abscess drainage using a pigtail catheter, ≥ 18 years of age, and had available medical images and records. 44 patients were included.

RESULTS: Among white blood cell count, patient age, and abscess volume, the only significant relationship with duration of catheter stay was abscess size (R = 0.42, p-value = 0.0049).