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Utility of the cleft lift procedure in refractory pilonidal disease
1Sacred Heart Medical Center, 1255 Hilyard, Eugene, OR 97401, USA. JbascomR@pacinfo.com
Background:
Refractory pilonidal disease is a problem. We wished to show the utility of the cleft lift procedure in solving nonhealing.
Methods:
We selected a subset of challenging cases for this study. The subset included all patients referred with persistent open wounds despite at least 2 prior pilonidal surgeries elsewhere.
Results:
The 69 patients had undergone 223 surgeries (average, 3) and endured open wounds for a sum of 365 years (average, 5). All patients we contacted were healed after a single cleft lift surgery with 3 exceptions. Two patients required 2 lifts before healing and 1 patient required 3 lifts.
Conclusions:
The cleft lift procedure gave excellent results in patients with refractory pilonidal disease.
