Painful Drainage of Upper Chest Abscess

This is a difficult video to watch. I had thought originally that this might be an infected Epidermal cyst and talk about such through the video. However, this was simply a very painful abscess. You will notice no hint of a capsule once incised and no keratin of any type. As well, this regrettably shows how an infected field compromises the function of local anaesthetic. You should keep in mind that before this procedure was taped, he already had a ring block in place with about 25ccs of lidocaine. Despite this and a local block, he had very little relief. I should have also had a basin ready as that would have made the field a bit 'cleaner'. This young man was really quite stoic.