Red Flags That Your Prospective Surgeon is not a Pilonidal Surgeon
Your prospective surgeon has made it onto an online list of cleft-lifters. He or she markets pilonidal excisions on their professional website. Unfortunately, these types of things do not guarantee that your surgeon is the pilonidal specialist that you need. Here are some red flags to look out for..
1. The surgeon claims to have done 100s of cleft-lifts, but seems to also do a myriad of non-pilonidal surgeries. Jack of all trades, master of, well, probably most of the procedures offered except the cleft-lift.
2. The surgeon reserves cleft-lifts for the more severe cases, or will decide whether to do it “when he gets in there”. This should be a deal-breaker. As one of only 6-10 real cleft-lifters in the US, I can tell you that no additional information is gleaned after the incision is made. 3. The surgeon warns you of a real recurrence risk. He should really be warning you of a bad surgery risk. When done properly, recurrence following cleft-lift is < 2%. Stay tuned for more Red Flags in subsequent posts.