["Pit picking" surgery for patients with pilonidal disease : mid-term results and risk factors].

BACKGROUND

Minimally invasive procedures have increasingly been used to treat pilonidal disease; however, the mid-term and long-term results have not been evaluated extensively yet.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All patients underwent "pit picking" surgery. The surgery was performed under local anesthesia. The technique of "pit picking" was: all midline pits were removed by excising a margin of skin of < 1 mm. An incision of 1 cm parallel to one side of the natal cleft opened the chronic abscess cavity. No specific postoperative wound care was given.

RESULTS

A total of 153 patients (126 males) underwent "pit picking" surgery between June 2007 and November 2010. Follow-up information was available for 148 patients (97 %). Of the patients 74% had no recurrence after a median follow-up time of 30 months and 8 more patients (5 %) remained asymptomatic after a second"pit picking" procedure. By multivariate analysis, smoking (hazard ratio [HR] 2.1) and occurrence of an abscess during the course of disease (HR 2.7) were statistically significantly associated with the disease recurrence after "pit picking" surgery.

CONCLUSION

Approximately three quarters of selected patients with pilonidal disease benefit from minimally invasive "pit picking" surgery.