What would you expect a microscopic examination of the contents of the abscess to most likely show?

If someone has an abscess, this means that they are a raised area on the skin that is filled with pus or other debris. It is tender to the touch and may be very painful. Typically, a health care worker will drain the pus out of the abscess.

Abscesses can be found anywhere on or in the body. It is most likely caused an infection of the skin. When a patient comes into the hospital complaining of a raised reddened bump on their skin, the first thing the health care worker would do is to examine it.

The health care worker would microscopically examine it and most likely the health care worker would see an acute inflammatory infilitrate of PMNs.

An acute inflammatory infiltrate of pmns-in an abscess, whether it is acute (short duration) or chronic (longer duration), one will always see pmns (acute inflammatory infiltrate) and not lymphocytes, plasma cells, and macrophages (chronic inflammatory cells). Caseous necrosis is usually seen in association with some causes of granulomas. Liquefactive necrosis is seen in an abscess. Coagulative necrosis can be seen in irreversible injury of all types of tissue with the exception of the brain and abscess. Superimposed bacterial infections can cause a liquefactive component.