An abscess is a pocket of infected fluid with a thick wall around it. Skin or soft tissue abscesses occur when bacteria get into tissue below the outer layer of skin.
Most of the time an abscess forms when bacteria enter a break in the skin. For example, an abscess might develop when a hair becomes ingrown or when the skin is scratched or poked with something sharp. As more bacteria grow (multiply) in the skin or soft tissues, the body responds by forming a wall around the area to help keep the bacteria from spreading to other parts of the body. The bacteria in this pocket continue to multiply and as they do, the pocket becomes more swollen. Some of the bacteria may get through the wall and cause an infection of the tissues around the abscess or even get into the blood and infect other parts of the body.
Often abscesses occur when hair follicles or sweat glands get infected or after minor scrapes or puncture wounds.
Abscesses are more common in people who have diabetes or poor circulation, and in people whose immune systems are weakened.
The symptoms of an abscess in the skin or soft tissues are:
If the infection is spreading to other parts of the body, the redness may spread toward the center of your body and you may have a fever, body aches, and tiredness.
Your healthcare provider will ask about your symptoms and examine the area that is red and swollen.
Usually your healthcare provider will treat the abscess by cutting it open and draining it. This is called an incision and drainage, or I&D. The abscess has to be cut open and drained because the thick wall around it will not let antibiotics get through to fight the infection.
When an I&D is done, first your healthcare provider cleans the skin over the abscess and injects an anesthetic into the skin to make it numb. He or she then cuts open the abscess, and the pus drains out. This drainage of pus often decreases the pain right away because it relieves the pressure caused by the fluid.
Your healthcare provider then packs the pocket with gauze. One end of the gauze is in the abscess and the other end is left sticking out through the cut in the skin. This allows the pus that forms in the abscess to drain out. It also prevents the skin from healing back over the abscess and sealing it off again. The gauze packing is changed every day or two. Your body will fill in the pocket where the abscess was with new tissue. Once the abscess is filled in, the packing is removed for the last time and the skin is allowed to heal and close up.
You should not open or squeeze an abscess yourself. This can make the infection worse.
Sometimes draining the abscess is the only treatment needed. At other times, especially when it looks like the infection may be spreading beyond the abscess area, antibiotics will be given as well.
The time it takes for an abscess to heal depends on how big it is, where it is, and how fast you heal. Sometimes it takes only a couple of days, but sometimes it takes weeks.
