A single-center study in recent edition of ‘American Journal of Otolaryngology’ described medical therapy alone to be a safe and effective substitute to surgical drainage for the empiric treatment of peritonsillar abscess (PTA).

To compare the medical therapy alone and surgical therapy (ST) for PTA, the study cohort was divided into two groups as- 306 patients (72.7%) in the MTA group and 115 (27.3%) in the ST group. A comparison of their demographics, disease characteristics, management approaches, and treatment outcomes was done. Treatment failure (need for follow-up surgical intervention) and reported issues of empiric treatment in 2-weeks was considered as primary outcome.

No significant difference in the rate of treatment failure between the two groups were found. Reported issues were rare. Patients in the ST group more frequently described dysphagia, trismus, larger abscesses, and hospital admission. MTA group had more frequent corticosteroid prescriptions than ST group. There were no significant independent predictors of treatment failure.

Aaron LeeZebolsky and colleagues noted that abscess size did not seem to impact the treatment failure; yet, careful patient selection is possibly to optimize the treatment outcomes.