Ultrasound guided needle aspirations versus incision and drainage for lactational breast abscess: A randomized control trial.

Objective: To compare the mean healing time in patients undergoing ultrasound guided needle aspirations versus incision and drainage for lactational breast abscess. Study Design: Randomized Controlled Trail. Setting: Department of Surgery, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi. Period: 1st March 2019 to 31st August 2019. Material & Methods: After endorsement from the ethical committee, an informed consent was taken from the patients in order to obtain their data for assessment with the affirmation of privacy of their record. After taking complete history from each patient, their breasts were palpated bilaterally for any lump. The diagnosis was established by the sonomammogram. Patients were randomized by lottery method prospectively to ultrasound guided aspiration group, and incision and drainage group for lactational breast abscess. Both groups were compared in terms of mean healing time. Results: In this study, total 70 patients having lactational breast abscess were included. There were 35 patients in Group-A i.e patients undergoing ultrasound guided needle aspirations and 35 in Group-B i.e patients undergoing incision and drainage. Mean healing time in patients undergoing ultrasound guided needle aspirations versus incision and drainage for lactational breast abscess shows 21.0+1.97 days in Group-A and 44.23+3.15 days in Group-B, p value was 0.0001. Conclusion: We concluded that the mean healing time in patients undergoing ultrasound guided needle aspirations was significantly lower when compared to those with incision and drainage for lactational breast abscess.