What Is A Cyst?
Cysts are sacs or cavities filled with fluid or pus. They can appear on your skin or anywhere inside your body. Some common types are the baker’s cyst (behind the knee), sebaceous cyst (under the skin), and ganglion cyst (along the tendons or joints of your wrists, hands, or feet).
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​The cells that make up a cyst’s sac are different from those around them, but they usually aren’t cancerous. Cysts grow slowly, and are not typically painful. A cyst is not considered a medical problem unless it bothers you or becomes sore or infected.
What Is An Abscess?
An abscess is a tender, infected area filled with pus. Abscesses form when your immune system is fighting an infection in one of your bodily tissues.
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Like cysts, abscesses can occur on your skin or inside your body. However, because abscesses involve infection, they are warm, painful, irritated, and often red and swollen. The surrounding area is usually colored from pink to deep red, and the infection can also cause symptoms in other parts of the body. An abscess can form on its own or can occur when a cyst becomes infected.
Abscess & Cyst Treatments
If you have a cyst or abscess that is bothering you, you should visit a medical center to have it examined. At Local MD Urgent Care, most cysts and abscesses are drained and removed using one of the following two procedures:
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Fine Needle Aspiration: In a fine needle aspiration procedure, a thin needle is inserted into the cyst, after the area has been numbed. One of our medical experts will drain the cyst’s fluids through the needle. Patients typically experience no discomfort to minimal discomfort during the procedure.
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Incision & Drainage: During the incision and drainage procedure, your On Dmed provider will use a local anesthetic to numb the area surrounding the boil or abscess. Once the anesthetic takes effect, and the area is numb to pain, the doctor will use a scalpel to make a small incision into the skin over the infected area in order to drain the pus.
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Some abscesses may require more than one puncture as there may be more than one pocket of pus. In cases of particularly large or deep abscesses, packing may be placed in the wound to hold it open so that it continues to drain as it heals.
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The entire procedure can usually be completed in less than one hour. Complications are mild if any. However, if you experience any bleeding, pain, or scarring afterward, you may need additional medical care.
Abscess & Cyst At Home Remedies
One of the best things you can do to treat a cyst or abscess at home is to hold a warm, moist cloth on the area for 20 minutes at a time, a few times daily. This may soothe the area, stimulate infection-fighting antibodies and white blood cells, and help the area heal.
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It’s not advisable to try draining a cyst or abscess yourself. Cyst popping at home can cause infection. Instead, keep the area clean, and make an appointment with a doctor if the area is painful or starts to drain.