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IDEAS THAT WORK
SMELL FROM HELL Avoid a stinky scenario with Dr. Gottesman's direct-to-drain solution for abscesses.
DRAIN AN ABSCESS WITH LESS MESS
A Suctioning Solution for Smelly Sores
Does your staff break out the floral-scented aerosol sprays when you drain abscesses? The pilonidal and rectal ones are particularly putrid work, producing a smelly mess that can stink up a room for hours afterward. You can make some friends in the OR (and in the cases that follow yours) with this simple solution.
Instead of making an incision into the abscess, as per usual, inject 1cc of local anesthetic into the skin over the abscess, just enough to let you insert a needle. Then take a syringe with an 18- gauge needle and aspirate the abscess. Once you get pus, disconnect the syringe,
connect the needle to wall suction with tubing and drain the abscess into a suction canister. Then continue with your procedure. Basically, you're moving the odor and mess from one closed system (the abscess) into another closed system (wall canister). And because pus changes a site's pH, making lidocaine less effective, removing the pus also lets your local anesthetic work well.
Lester Gottesman, MD
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
New York, N.Y.
lg40@columbia.edu
