후인두 농양의 치료에 대한 고찰

Abstract

Background and Objectives：The incidence of retropharyngeal absces has ben decreased with use of antibiotics, but it still causes critical complications such as airway obstruction, aspiration pneumonia, mediastinitis, or sepsis. For this reason, early diag-maintaining airway, performing surgical drainage, and administering antibiotics; but there are no definite guidelines for treating patients with retropharyngeal abscess, nor a golden rule for the corect surgical approach. Subjects and Method：A retrospec-tive analysis of patients with retropharyngeal abscess who were treated at the Chungbuk University Hospital from 1993 to 2003 was performed. We analized general symptoms, signs, causing factors, and causing bacteria. We also analized the treatment outcome and selected approaches from the surgically treated patients. Results：The general symptoms of retropharyngeal abscess were sore throat, fever, dyspnea, with the most common cause being the uper airway infection. Bacteriologically, hemolytic streptococ-cus was the most common bacteria among aerobes and bacteroides was the most common bacteria among anaerobes. However, in most cases, both aerobe and anaerobes were cultured at the same time. Among 18 cases, 6 cases were treated conservatively s-cervical approach. Conclusion：Retropharyngeal abscess can be treated with either conservative or surgical treatment according to initial absces size.The absces size which is greater than 3 cm is prefered to be treated surgicaly,and transoral aproach is a useful way of dealing with les invasive procedure.