Comparison of needle aspiration and vacuum-assisted biopsy in the ultrasound-guided drainage of Lactational breast abscesses

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare needle aspiration and vacuum-assisted biopsy in the ultrasound-guided treatment of lactational breast abscesses. Methods: Between January 2005 and December 2014, a total of 74 patients presented with lactational breast abscesses. Thirty of these patients underwent treatment with antibiotics alone, while the remaining 44 lactating women with breast abscesses were treated with needle aspiration (n=25) or vacuum-assisted biopsy (n=19). Age, duration of lactation, abscess diameter, pus culture results, the number of interventions, the healing time, and the cure rate were reviewed and compared between these two groups. The Student’s t test and the chi-square test were used to compare the variables. Results: No significant difference was found in the cure rate between the needle aspiration group (22/25, 88%) and the vacuum-assisted biopsy group (18/19, 94.7%) (P=0.441). However, the mean healing time was significantly shorter in the vacuum-assisted biopsy group (6.7 days) than in the needle aspiration group (9.0 days) (P=0.001). Conclusion: Vacuum-assisted biopsy is a viable option for the management of lactational breast abscesses and was found to lead to a shorter healing time than needle aspiration. However, further study is necessary to establish the clinical efficacy of vacuum-assisted biopsy in the management of lactational breast abscesses.