[Pilonidal disease: The revolution in minimally invasive surgery]

THE REVOLUTION IN MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY. Pilonidal disease is a common suppurative condition and affects 0.7% of the population. Surgical excision is the standard treatment. In France, the most common procedure is lay-open excision with healing by secondary intention. This procedure has low recurrence rates, but involves daily nursing care, long healing time and long period of sick-leave. Excision and primary repair or flap-based procedures are good alternatives to reduce these negative aspects but they expose to higher recurrence rates than excision with healing by secondary intention. The goal of minimally invasive techniques is to eradicate the suppuration, obtain healing as quick as possible, and limit the morbidity as much as possible. Old minimally invasive approaches such as phenolization or pit-picking are associated with low morbidity but with higher recurrence rates. Currently, new minimally invasive techniques are being developed. Endoscopic and laser treatment of pilonidal disease have shown promising results, with failure rates of less than 10% at 1 year, few complications and low morbidity. Complications are rare and minor. However, these interesting results need to be confirmed by better quality studies with longer follow-up.