Treatment of tuberculous and nontuberculous psoas abscesses with percutaneous catheter drainage

Abstract

There are operative and non operative approaches in the treatment of psoas abscesses. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of the percutaneous catheter drainage in the tuberculous and nontuberculous psoas abscesses. Eight patients with psoas abscesses were treated with computed tomography and ultrasonography guided drainage. Antituberculous or antibiotic chemotherapy was given to all patients after the drainage. Six patients had tuberculous psoas abscess and two patients had pyogenic psoas abscess. All abscesses were unilateral. There was vertebral involvement in five patients with tuberculous abscesses, but they did not have vertebral instability and neurologic deficit. Mean drainage duration was 9 days and mean drained abscess volume was 85 ml. There was no complication and death. None of the cases required surgery. Recurrence was not detected in clinical follow-up and the computed tomographic examination. We consider that percutaneous abscess drainage with chemotherapy should be the first choice of treatment method in selected cases with psoas abscesses that do not have vertebral instability, and neurologic deficit.