Drainage of Liver Abscess: Comparison between 20 Fr Polyvinyl Chloride versus 10 Fr Pigtail Catheter

Background: Liver abscesses, refractory to medical therapy requires percutaneous drainage by catheter placed under ultrasonography guidance is considered as the treatment of choice. Pigtail catheter is most commonly used for this purpose which gets repeatedly blocked, requires regular fl ushing and takes a long time to evacuate the abscess. Materials and Methods: In this study, we compared the relative safety and effi cacy of a new procedure of draining the large peripheral right lobe liver abscesses using wide bore 20 Fr polyvinyl chloride (PVC) catheter in place of 10 Fr pigtail catheter on 50 patients. Student’s t-test was used to assess the quantitative and Chi-square test for qualitative differences. The P < 0.05 was considered statistically signifi cant. Results: About 20 Fr PVC wide bore catheter is found to be more effi cient in draining the pus of large liver abscess as compared to the pigtail. Complications and recurrence rate were more common with pigtail. The hospital stay and hence expenditure was more with the pigtail catheter. Conclusion: Wide bore (20 Fr) PVC catheter is safe, valuable and rapid way of evacuating the massive solitary peripheral liver abscesses and should be favored to narrow bore 10 Fr. pigtail catheter.