Characteristics of Children Referred for Drainage of Sub-cutaneous Soft Tissue Infections

Purpose: Severe skin and soft tissue infections in children are a common cause of hospital admission. Surgical drainage is often required for definitive therapy. Our aim was to review common characteristics of children requiring surgical incision and drainage (I&D) for subcutaneous abscesses. Methods: IRB approval was obtained for a retrospective chart review of children requiring I&D of subcutaneous abscesses between July 2006 and June 2011. Data points included patient demographics, abscess location, surgical procedure, microbiology cultures, and hospital length of stay. Results: Surgical I&D were performed on 1042 children, and 781 patients (75%) were admitted to the surgical service. The average age was 3.4 years. 605 patients (58%) were female. 637 abscesses (61%) were located in the groin/buttock/perineum area. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was identified in 70% of the culture specimens. The average length of stay was 2.8 days. The rate of recidivism was 10.9%. Conclusions: Soft tissue infections requiring hospital admission and I&D are common in the pediatric population. The vast majority of these are due to MRSA infections. Infections requiring drainage most frequently occurred in the diaper area of girls less than 3 years old. A significant number of children have recurrent skin infections and represent an important patient subpopulation.