Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2015; 21(11): 3402-3408
Published online Mar 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i11.3402
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided drainage of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses
Koichiro Mandai, Koji Uno, Kenjiro Yasuda
Koichiro Mandai, Koji Uno, Kenjiro Yasuda, Department of Gastroenterology, Kyoto Second Red Cross Hospital, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8026, Japan
Author contributions: Mandai K collected the data and wrote the paper; Uno K and Yasuda K revised the paper.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Kyoto Second Red Cross Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent: All study participants provided informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest: There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Koichiro Mandai, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Kyoto Second Red Cross Hospital, 355-5 Haruobi-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8026, Japan. mandai@gmail.com
Telephone: +81-75-2315171 Fax: +81-75-2563451
Received: October 4, 2014
Peer-review started: October 6, 2014
First decision: October 29, 2014
Revised: November 12, 2014
Accepted: January 8, 2015
Article in press: January 8, 2015
Published online: March 21, 2015
Processing time: 166 Days and 0 Hours
Abstract

Although endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided drainage has become the standard procedure for pancreatic pseudocysts in recent years and is generally regarded as a safe and effective method, there have been few reports of EUS-guided drainage of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses. Here we report our experience with 4 cases of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses for which EUS-guided drainage was performed between May 2011 and May 2014. Distal pancreatectomy had been performed in 3 cases, whereas low anterior resection for rectal cancer was performed in the remaining case. All patients underwent transgastric naso-cystic drainage, which resulted in clinical improvement without complications, even when performed within 4 wk after surgery. On average, the naso-cystic drain was removed 10 d after placement, with no abscess recurrence. Based on these findings, we believe that EUS-guided drainage of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses is a safe and effective method, although further large-scale investigations are required to confirm our findings.

Keywords: Postoperative intra-abdominal abscess; Endoscopic ultrasonography; Endoscopic ultrasound-guided drainage; Transgastric drainage; Naso-cystic drainage

Core tip: There have been few reports of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided drainage of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses, although EUS-guided drainage has become the standard procedure for pancreatic pseudocysts in recent years. Here we report our experience with 4 cases. Transgastric naso-cystic drainage was performed for all patients and resulted in clinical improvement without complications, even when performed within 4 wk after surgery. On average, the naso-cystic drain was removed 10 d after placement, with no abscess recurrence. We believe that EUS-guided drainage of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses is a safe and effective method, although further large-scale investigations are required to confirm our findings.