Introduction Routine swab cultures at the time of perianal abscess drainage remains common practice in modern day emergency colorectal surgery. We aimed to analyse the effectiveness of culture swabs to predict short term and long term outcomes of perianal abscess drainage.

Method 350 consecutive patients from January 2008 to December 2010 undergoing incision and drainage (I&D) of perianal abscesses with packing of wound in community were analysed for readmission, follow up outpatient visit, repeat procedure for ongoing symptoms and presence of anal fistula at follow up examination under anaesthesia (EUA). Patients with inflammatory bowel disease and known anal fistula disease were excluded. Inter-group comparative analyses were made for patients with and without intra-operative culture swabs and for the microbial growth.

Results Overall fistula formation rate after I and D was 12% at 36 month follow up. No statistical significant differences were found between the different groups for rate of readmission, presence of fistula and number of outpatient consultations (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in fistula rates for patients with positive microbial growth and negative microbial growth (10% vs. 8%, p = 0.12). No significant variation was observed for different types of organisms and rate of fistula formation. (See Table 1).

Conclusion Routine swab cultures do not influence short and long term outcome associated with I&D of perianal abscess.

Disclosure of interest None Declared.