The value of conservative management in pediatric deep neck space infections
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34631/sporl.766Keywords:
retropharyngeal abscess, neck, abscess, fasciaAbstract
Objective: To evaluate the role of medical treatment in pediatric deep neck space infection management.
Study design: retrospective study.
Material & Methods: Pediatric patients with imagiologic evidence of parapharyngeal or retropharyngeal infection admitted to our institution between January 2007 and December 2017 were included. Statistical analysis was conducted in IBM SPSS version 24.
Results and Conclusions: A total of 33 patients were included. Median age was 4 years (1-15) and 16 (48%) were male. Seventeen (52%) patients had surgical treatment and sixteen (48%) were managed with antibiotics alone.
We observed no differences between the two groups regarding age, antibiotic regimen and steroids use.
The conservative group had smaller abscesses (16.4 vs 24.1 mm, p=0.04), and shorter inpatient admission (9 days vs 11 days, p=0.06). There were no recurrences in both groups.
Conservative treatment was effective in selected patients with smaller abscesses. Further studies with larger samples would be important.
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