Efficacy of needle aspiration in patients with oral-maxillofacial abscesses: A retrospective study of 15 consecutive patients

The aim of this study was to determine the adequacy and safety of needle aspiration (NA) as an alternative to open surgical drainage for oral-maxillofacial abscesses. Fifteen consecutive patients who were diagnosed with oral-maxillofacial abscesses via contrast-enhanced CT from January 2020 to December 2020 were included. All patients were on antibiotics and treated with NA under local anaesthesia using a 20 mL syringe. Data collection included patient characteristics, signs and symptoms, physical examinations, laboratory tests, imaging findings, and outcomes. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to identify the infectious microorganisms from the abscess samples. The study included 15 patients with oral-maxillofacial abscesses. None of our 15 patients required surgical incision and drainage, although repeat aspiration was required. However, after the first NA, the pain was reportedly extremely relieved for all patients. The average duration of antibiotic treatment was 9.20 ± 5.15 days (range 4–23 days). The abscess-affected spaces mainly included the masseter space and submandibular space. Odontogenic infection was the most common aetiology in 15 patients (10/15). The average volume of the abscesses on CT was 5866.26 ± 3627.18 mm³. The main pathogens identified in this study were Prevotella oris (5/15), Peptostreptococcus stomatis (4/15) and Porphyromonas endodontalis (2/15). According to the results of our study, the data support the use of NA as an effective, minimally invasive treatment modality for oral-maxillofacial abscesses. Surgeons should familiarise themselves with this technique, as it can easily be performed in the clinic using local anaesthesia, culture samples may be obtained, and airway obstruction and pain may be relieved.