Pilonidal Sinus appears like a boil on the skin and is mostly found around the tail bone in the upper part of your buttocks. There may be pain and pus coming out from the boil or the small hole as it appears. Pilonidal sinus can also occur in the armpits or on the stomach. This afflicts people in the age bracket of 15-45 years. Pilonidal sinus is mostly found in people who have a hairy body, are overweight and have long sitting to do - like students and office professionals. It is more common in men than women. When a person is overweight, the continuous presence of sweat in the buttock and the armpit area softens the skin. This causes the hair in the region to pierce the skin and start growing inwards. These hair follicles create a tract in which bundles of hair accumulate and cause infection. This forms pus which creates an opening on the skin to come out. This opening is the small hole which is visible to you. Pilonidal sinus can be easily diagnosed by a general surgeon on clinical examination and does not require any investigation. However your doctor might sometimes order an MRI to see the path of the tract and to check whether any fistula has formed.

Treatment for Pilonidal Sinus

Most of the surgeons have been taught to perform an incision surgery for the treatment of pilonidal sinus. In this the surgeon gives an incision on the skin along the length of the tract and clears all the hair follicles. The surgeon then scrapes the surface so that scarring takes place which leads to healing. The wound is left open and the patient is asked to lie on the stomach for an extended period of 4-6 weeks. This is extremely uncomfortable for the students or the office goers. Another surgery which is done for pilonidal sinus is flap surgery in which the incision is given and the tract cleared but the wound is not left open. The surgeon creates a flap and covers the wound which is then stitched. The recovery time gets reduced to 2-3 weeks in this surgery but sometimes the stitches come off due to the strain in that area. The best technique for pilonidal sinus surgery which is a recent invention is the `wet to dry technique'. In this technique, no incision is required and therefore the surgery can be done as a day care procedure and the patient can go home within few hours of the surgery. The recovery time is virtually nil and the patient can resume normal routine from the same day itself.