Non-healing Pilonidal Cystectomy Wounds

All too commonly, a pilonidal patient suffers from a non-healing surgical wound, the result of a flawed midline pilonidal cystectomy by a nonspecialist. Painful, ineffective, and seemingly endless wound care treatments are the rule. School or work days are missed. The negative social impact is profound. But all hope is not lost. The sine qua non of the pilonidal surgeon is the ability to correct these wounds.

At PTCNJ, the revisional cleft-lift procedure can be offered to the vast majority of these patients with a very high likelihood of near-immediate success. In this procedure, the open wound, any active pilonidal disease, and most or all of the scar tissue is removed.  The cleft is re-contoured, eliminating the risk of recurrent disease. Like the index cleft-lift, the revisional cleft-lift is done in our ambulatory care center under general anesthesia. Full healing is seen by 6 weeks.