A method for primary reconstruction following radical excision of sacrococcygeal pilonidal disease

A great variety of procedures have been proposed for the cure of Sacrococcygeal pilonidal disease. Initial enthusiasm has usually given way to disappointment when it is realized that the treatment is painful, the hospitalization is prolonged, the aftercare is tedious or the original condition appears to have recurred. A technique is described which permits the total extirpation of cyst and sinus tracts while allowing for a tensionless wound closure by advancement of a buttock flap. Hospitalization is brief and the postoperative course is comfortable. Fifty such operations have been performed since November 1968. In the first group of thirty patients operated upon between three and ten years ago, a single bonafide failure occurred. An additional twenty patients have been successfully treated for an overall failure rate of 2%.