CLINICAL EFFICACY OF ULTRASOUND-GUIDED PERCUTANEOUS DRAINAGE OF ABSCESSES IN PATIENTS WITH LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA

Ultrasound guided percutaneous drainage (US-PD), a minimally invasive technique, has been reported as highly effective for the treatment of deeply located abscesses, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, we retrospectively studied its therapeutic efficacy and saf ety in a series of 14 patients with leukaemia and lymphoma. We collect ed the clinical and sonographic data of 14 patients with various types of leukaemia and lymphoma. These patients were consecutively observed in four clinical centres with long-term experience with ultrasound gu ided therapeutic techniques. The cases were analysed according to unde rlying disease, clinical features, location of the abscess, drainage t echnique, microbiological data and both short-and long-term outcome. I n our series, 11 patients were treated with repeated ultrasound guided needle aspirations (US-NA) and 3 underwent catheter drainage (US-PCD) . In 12/14 cases the procedure was successful (86%): the mortality rat e was 14%. 5 patients died during the follow-up period because of the underlying disease, without abscess recurrence. No complications were reported. Our data suggest that ultrasound guided percutaneous drainag e should be considered the first choice, minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of deeply located abscesses in patients with leukaem ia and lymphoma. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.