Diagnosis of peritonsillar abscess: value of intraoral sonography.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Clinical differentiation of peritonsillar abscess from peritonsillar cellulitis can be difficult and often relies on blind needle aspiration of the tonsillar fossa to locate pus. The objective of this study was to establish a noninvasive and reliable sonographic technique for differentiating peritonsillar abscess from peritonsillar cellulitis in equivocal cases and to thereby avoid unnecessary needle aspiration.The study population included three healthy volunteers and 18 patients with clinically suspected peritonsillar abscess. The tonsils were assessed by using transcutaneous and intraoral sonography.The tonsils were visualized on both transcutaneous and intraoral sonograms in all three volunteers and in 16 patients. In one patient, the tonsils were not visualized on transcutaneous imaging; intraoral imaging showed cellulitis. In another patient, the intraoral examination was unsuccessful, whereas transcutaneous sonograms showed normal tonsils. On the basis of findings on transcutaneous sonograms, tonsi...

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: