Abscesses can be treated with antibiotics, and either a drainage procedure, or surgery, to remove the pus.
The treatment that you receive for an abscess will depend on the type of abscess that you have and how large it is.
Treating a skin abscess
If you have a skin abscess, it is likely that your GP will prescribe antibiotics to help clear the infection. If your abscess is small, antibiotics may be the only treatment that you need to kill the bacteria so that the abscess can heal.
However, in most cases, antibiotics alone will not be enough to clear a skin abscess. It is usually necessary to drain the pus from a skin abscess in order to clear the infection.
If a skin abscess is not drained, it may continue to become larger and fill with pus until it bursts, which can be very painful. If an abscess is allowed to burst and drain of pus on its own, there is also a risk that it will not drain properly, causing the abscess to come back, or the infection to spread.
Incision and drainage
If you need to have your skin abscess drained, it is likely that you will have a small operation under anaesthetic. The anaesthetic that is used will depend on the size and severity of your skin abscess. You may have a local anaesthetic (you will be awake, but the area of the abscess will be numb), or a general anaestheic (you will be asleep).
Your surgeon will make an incision (cut) in the abscess to allow all of the pus to drain out. They may also take a sample of pus for testing in order to confirm which bacteria caused the infection. Once all of the pus has been drained, your surgeon will clean the hole that is left by the abscess using saline (salt solution) or antiseptic.
Your abscess will be left open so that any more pus that is produced can be drained away. If your abscess is deep, you may need to have an antiseptic dressing placed inside it to keep it open. Once the procedure is complete, the wound should heal in approximately 14 days. It may leave a small scar.
Treating an internal abscess
As with a skin abscess, the first type of treatment for an abscess inside your body will be antibiotics to help fight the infection.
You will then need to have an operation to drain your abscess of pus. The way this is done will depend on the size of your abscess, and whereabouts in your body it is.
Incision and drainage
If the internal abscess is small, your surgeon may be able to drain it using a fine needle. Depending on where your abscess is, this may be carried out using either local, or general, anaesthetic.
During a drainage procedure using a needle, an ultrasound scan may be used to help the surgeon guide the needle into the right place.
An ultrasound scan uses high-frequency sound waves to produce an image of the inside of your body, and can show your surgeon exactly where your abscess is.
Once the needle has entered the abscess, the pus will be drawn out into the needle. Your surgeon will then cover the area with a dressing.
However, if your internal abscess is too large to be drained with a needle, or if needle drainage has not been effective in removing all of the pus, you may need to have a different form of surgery.
Your surgeon may make an incision (cut) in your skin over the abscess, and insert a fine plastic tube into the abscess. The tube allows the pus to drain out, and it will be left in place until all the pus has been removed. As with needle drainage, you may be given a local, or a general anaesthetic, for this procedure.
