Holy Abscess! Not for the faint of heart

[Brian]

This is quite a large abscess, kind of gross too :)

[video=youtube;iRaaFS-cfGk]

My son saw this and asked if it was real? I said it looks real to me. What do you think?

Have any of you nurses seen an abscess this bad? Worse?

[southern rn]

It looks like there is fluid all the way down to the foot. Look at the shiny edema and also how discolored the lower leg is..horrible circulation. This person is lucky if they don't lose that limb. I hope the patient gave consent for this video..much less to post it on youtube!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Does it make me look bad that I had to share this with all my nurse friends???

HOw bad did it smell??? :eek::eek:

[casi, ASN, RN]

That is oddly amazing. I can only imagine how much better that felt once everything was drained.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

That is too funny, I asked my son the same question. How did you happen to come across that video? He said could not remember how he came across it? He was just looking at youtube videos and came across it as a related video? kids these days :) Maybe he is future nurse material maybe :)

All I could think of was....WOW........but I think it's real too......you can hear the pulse ox and an occasional wow and "Holy Sh**" in the background........again....WOW:eek:

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

I too take pleasure in squeezing pus out of things. Wonder what parts of all our brains are miswired?

Never seen anything like that before. Can't wait to gross hubby out with it :)

[Pappilli0n]

You like to think that the people who are watching this particular video are mature enough to handle it and respond in a more ethical and professional

manner....not. What also bothered me is the other portion of this extremity

appears to be awfully dark? Wonder if an amputation was next.

[Pappilli0n]

Just a bump on the leg/arm can cause a little cellulitis that if left untreated and ignored can eventually develop into something this big. The poor, the elderly, the handicapped, the transiant are all possible victims of these kinds of wounds.

Poor circulation, poor diet, poor medication are just a few of the underlying reasons.

[EponaRN]

I am one of the weird ones who likes to watch these abscess videos on Youtube. Never saw one this big though. Imagine the pain this guy was in having that huge amount of fluid in his leg! My concern started when you could hear his heart rate dropping on the monitor but it seemed to be within normal range. I wonder how he recovered. Those things can come back too, I hope they got all of it out, if you leave just a little piece of the "root" it will come back. I have a recurring abscess on my neck luckily with hot towels the cerumen begins to dissolve and it goes down but if it got like this I think I'd cry hysterically. Poor guy. I also would've loved to be there to squish it out. I'm a champion blackhead remover (I know you aren't supposed to take them out but I got a metal tool from the Derm) and find something entertaining about removing things from the skin. It feels like an accomplishment lol.

[dance4life]

wowzers!

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

OMG, I could almost smell it! That has to be the worst case ever ... is that MRSA?

[mrspalmeretti]

I think it's cellulitis. I saw a guy before with swollen leg like that and they drained the pus without using local anesthesia or anything. He's screaming and crying while the nurse draining the pus.

PS: the nurse is gagging and coughing too and I know it's not appropriate to do that in front of the patient.

[princess pickles]

I am amazed that I was not grossed out, I was amused... I must be sick! Or a nurse...