Building on my theme of combating odors in the Emergency Department (see Toxic Sock Syndrome), foul-smelling pus from large abscesses has got to be one of the most nauseating smells in the ED for me.
How can you minimize such odors?
- Prepare a Yankauer wall suction set up.
- Start by making only a small initial incision in the abscess, such that you can fit the Yankauer tip in the opening.
- Suction out as much of the pus into the closed suction canister as possible.
- Widen the incision and continue suctioning out the pus, as needed.
Basically you are moving the smell from one closed system (the abscess) into another closed system (wall canister).What tricks do you have to minimize odors when performing I+Ds of abscesses?
