Painless ganglion cyst aspiration for patient and clinician

摘要

The management options for ganglion cysts include: observation, aspiration+injection with steroid and surgical excision.nOne of the problems encountered during fine needle aspiration is the highly viscous cyst fluid being difficult to withdraw. Wenpropose a modified technique, which improves the ease and speed of achieving complete aspiration of ganglion cysts bynusing local anaesthetic. Twenty-five patients who were referred from primary care and orthopaedic outpatients werendiagnosed with ganglion cysts on ultrasound. The modified aspiration technique involves injecting a small volume of localnanaesthetic into the cyst fluid prior to aspiration and was performed on all patients. All cysts were completely drained usingnthis modified technique with no immediate complications and with minimal discomfort to the patient. Our adaptation to thentechnique of simple aspiration provides a method of achieving complete ganglion resolution with ease and in a time framenappropriate for a standard outpatient appointment. Low immediate complication rates are seen due to the adjunct ofnultrasound and the local anaesthetic reduces patient discomfort during the procedure. This method has been particularlyneffective for large ganglions but can be equally effective for treating smaller lesions.