An interventional study of Full packing into abscess cavity and Wick placement into abscess cavity in Superficial Abscess Packing, sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 6 Months to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-06-19.
Sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Abscesses or "boils" are becoming more common every year and are a common reason children come to the Emergency Department. For the abscess to heal the skin needs to be opened to let the pus come out. Often doctors put something called "packing material" or gauze into the abscess space to help aid in healing. It is not known if the type of "packing" that is done is necessary or if a more simple treatment is as good or better. With informed consent we randomly place a child into one (1) of two (2) groups in this study that will say if the child's abscess/boil is packed with gauze in the traditional way or if a wick (small piece) of gauze is placed after the abscess/boil is opened and the fluid is drained. After treatment in the emergency department the child will be scheduled to follow-up in the Pediatric Acute Wound Service (PAWS) clinic as all other children with this infection are scheduled. At this visit the healing of the wound will be checked by the staff in the clinic and will be scored. With this evaluation of the wound the hypothesis that for a simple superficial (skin) abscess/boil a gauze wick placement into the abscess/boil is as effective as placement of traditional gauze packing.
149 studies on the registry are indexed under Abscess; 32 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 156 is above the median of 96 across 102 interventional studies indexed under Abscess.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Procedure: Wick placement into abscess cavity
Procedure: Full packing into abscess cavity
After incision and drainage plain 1/4-1/2 inch gauze packing material is placed into the cavity to fill it
After incision and drainage of the abscess a piece of plain gauze 1/4-1 inch packing material that is as wide as can be easily passed through the opening is placed into the cavity spanning one diameter of the cavity
Abscess healing based upon clinical criteria and clinical judgement
Abscesses are assessed for pus accumulation, erythema from the wound, if the patient has a fever and the overall clinical judgment of the evaluating health care professional at the time of follow-up.
Time frame: 24-72 hours
Pain since abscess drainage
Time frame: 24-72 hours
Parent/guardian comfort with removing the packing material or wick from the abscess cavity
Time frame: 24-72 hours
Parent/guardian assessment of the abscess wound at 2 weeks
Time frame: 2 weeks
Parent/guardian assessment of pus drainage at 2 weeks
Time frame: 2 weeks
Need for further treatment of same abscess within 2 weeks
Time frame: 2 weeks
This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2018. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Washington University School of Medicine