Abstract

A common presentation to the emergency department is a skin and soft tissue abscess. Incision and drainage (I & D) are the main therapy for most abscesses; nevertheless, they can cause discomfort and necessitate repeated visits. Another, less intrusive method of managing abscess is loop drainage (LD). Comparing LD with I & D for skin and soft tissue abscesses was the main goal of this study. Hence, this review was conducted using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and best practices for systematic reviews. The electronic databases that were searched for included Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar, for publications released between 2016 and 2023. The bibliographies available for the studies were reviewed and examined to ensure that nothing was missing. In this systematic review, five trials including 409 patients were considered. One retrospective investigation and four randomized controlled trials. Admission, intravenous antibiotics, and the requirement for repeat I&D are examples of outcome metrics. The normal I&D method and the LD approach are equal in terms of issues and abscess clearance. LD and I&D are comparable in terms of effectiveness and the possibility of total abscess clearance in 14 days. When treating adult subcutaneous abscesses, the failure rates of the loop and packing procedures were comparable.

Key words: Incision and drainage, abscess, loop drainage, outcome, systemic review