Revision of the Failed Cleft Lift for Pilonidal Disease

The cleft lift has been demonstrated to be one of the most successful operations for the treatment of pilonidal disease, however, there are times this procedure fails and further surgery is necessary. This article describes a reproducible and successful technique for the revision of a failed cleft lift. This procedure was performed on 76 consecutive patients who had previous cleft lift procedures. Failures were manifested by either a wound, sinus, abscess, dehiscence or fragile scar. The revision flattened the lower gluteal cleft with a rotation and advancement flap that placed the skin incision off-midline. Follow-up over the 10 years of this series was between six and 124 months with an average of 36 months. The revision was initially successful in 96.1% of patients; if the procedure was unsuccessful a repeat revision was subsequently curative. This procedure is proposed as an essential part of the treatment algorithm for patients with recurrent pilonidal disease after a cleft lift operation.