Clinical Study of Conservative Therapy of Deep Neck Infection

심경부 감염의 보존적 치료에 대한 임상적 고찰

Background and Objectives : Traditionally incision and drainage is considered to be standard treatment of deep neck infection. But antibiotics and diagnostic technique are developed recently, there are reports that conservative therapy could be as successful as open surgical drainage. The purposes of this study has been to assess clinical feature between surgical therapy group and conservative therapy group through statistical analysis. Materials and Methods : A retrospective study was performed on 46 cases of deep neck space abscess, which were confirmed CT, in patients admitted from January 1999 to June 2002. Result : About 80% of all are treated with conservative therapy. Erythrocyte sediment rate, volume of abscess and duration of hospitalization of conservative therapy group are decreased than those of surgical therapy group. Conclusions : Conservative therapy is expected to be effective on treatment of early stage, small sized deep neck infection. But its complication can lead to serious condition of patient it should be done under meticulous observation.