Safety and efficacy of sonographically guided evacuation of intramuscular, bursal and subcutaneous hematomas

Purpose: The usefulness of evacuating hematomas is debated, some clinicians believe that aspiration leads to an increased risk of secondary infections. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety of sonographically guided intramuscular, bursal and subcutaneous hematoma evacuation. Methods and materials: Records of sonographic examinations performed from January 2005 through December 2007at a single institution were reviewed. During this period of time 116 sonographically guided evacuations of intramuscular (n=66), bursal (n=16), subcutaneous (n=9) and postoperative (n=14) hematomas were performed in 85 p…