Introduction: Differentiating the soft tissue abscess from other types of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) poses a particular challenge because they have similar physical evaluation findings, but each disease has a different course, outcome, and treatment. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care ultrasonography for diagnosis of soft tissue abscess in the emergency departments.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar, from inception to January 2023, was conducted to identify relevant studies investigating the diagnostic performance of point-of-care ultrasonography for identification of abscess. Methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using a revised tool for the quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS-2).
Results: The pooled estimates of diagnostic parameters of ultrasonography for diagnosis of abscess were as follows: sensitivity, 0.93 (95% CI: 0.92-0.94); specificity, 0.87 (95% CI: 0.85-0.89), and the area under the summary receiver-operating characteristic (SROC), 0.95. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the SROC of studies in adult patients were 0.98 (95% CI: 0.92-1), 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86-0.95), and 0.99, respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the SROC of studies in pediatric patients were 0.9 (95% CI: 0.87-0.92), 0.78 (95% CI: 0.73-0.82), and 0.91, respectively.
Conclusion: Our meta-analysis demonstrated that the point-of-care ultrasonography has excellent diagnostic value for the abscess in the emergency department. Furthermore, we found that the diagnostic performance of point-of-care ultrasonography for diagnosis of abscess was higher for adult cases than for pediatric patients.
Keywords: Abscess; cellulitis; diagnostic imaging; meta-analysis; ultrasonography.