Packing Versus no Packing for Cutaneous Abscess

January 22, 2026 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

Is Routine Packing of Cutaneous Abscesses Necessary?

The goal of this study is to examine patients undergoing incision and drainage of cutaneous abscesses to determine if routine packing of the abscess cavity affects the need for further interventions such as repeat incision and drainage, antibiotic administration or hospital admission.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Study protocol:

  1. Identification of a patient with a cutaneous abscess requiring incision and drainage
  2. Written consent obtained from the patient

  3. Study materials will be obtained

    • Enrolling physician fills out pre-procedure information (see data sheet)

    • Enrollment data sheet has instructions indicating whether patient is to receive packing or not

      • Use of random number generator to randomize all packets
    • Provider does abscess incision and drainage with or without packing according to the instructions
    • Enrolling physician fills out post-procedure information (see data sheet)
    • Patient returns within 48 hours for wound check with removal of packing if performed

    • Research coordinator or study physician calls the patient within 14 and 30 days after the procedure for follow-up

      • Information from a return visit and/or the telephone follow-up

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

196

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. All patients 18 years of age and above
  2. Patients that require a cutaneous abscess incision and drainage
  3. English-speaking subjects only

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Unable to return for 48-hour follow-up.
  2. Patients being admitted to the hospital or going to the operating room for incision and drainage
  3. Pregnant patients
  4. Patients less than 18 years of age
  5. Prisoners or persons in police custody
  6. Patients with infected bursa
  7. Non-English speaking subjects

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Packing
The patient is to have a long piece of gauze within the abscess cavity in an attempt to keep it open and allow purulent material to continue to drain after the initial incision and release of purulent material has been performed.
Procedure: Packing
The patient will receive packing as part of their wound care
Placebo Comparator: No packing
The patient is not to have packing of the abscess as part of the incision and drainage procedure
Other: No packing
The patient will not receive packing as part of their wound care

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percentage of patients needing further treatment
Time Frame: 14 days
follow-up call to determine if patient required further treatment beyond routine care
14 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS pain) post procedure
Time Frame: 14 days
Measure pain score after procedure
14 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michael Darracq, MD, MPH, UCSF - Fresno

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 30, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 1, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

July 4, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 26, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2016052

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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