Pilonidal sinus

Descav

Hi,

I'm just wondering did anyone go in for the full operation whereby they cut out a huge chunk of tissue and then stich you back up immediately. Its done under general anaesthetic.

I got that done years ago but it was the 1st procedure they tried. It didn't even hurt before. I thought i was going in to get it lanced and then they did this to me.

From what i've read....this type of operation should only happen after numerous other attempts to stop the problem.

Just looking for feedback.

SilverSparkle

Descav wrote: »

Hi,

I'm just wondering did anyone go in for the full operation whereby they cut out a huge chunk of tissue and then stich you back up immediately. Its done under general anaesthetic.

I got that done years ago but it was the 1st procedure they tried. It didn't even hurt before. I thought i was going in to get it lanced and then they did this to me.

From what i've read....this type of operation should only happen after numerous other attempts to stop the problem.

Just looking for feedback.

I had this done last June after 3 other surgeries and about 6 courses of antibiotics. The stitches were removed and have had no trouble since (touch wood).

Babypanda

Descav wrote: »

Hi,

I'm just wondering did anyone go in for the full operation where by they cut out a huge chunk of tissue and then stich you back up immediately. Its done under general anaesthetic.

I got that done years ago but it was the 1st procedure they tried. It didn't even hurt before. I thought i was going in to get it lanced and then they did this to me.

From what i've read....this type of operation should only happen after numerous other attempts to stop the problem.

Just looking for feedback.

Hi Descav. I had the same operation where they take the tissue out and stich you up, i've never know that, where only ament to get the operation after so many try's,
I was told that having it done that way was a mini operation, Where in big case's they can take out the tissue in your back and leave your back open to heal by its self it could take up to 6 months or more to recover
and then they told me about a third option which they call plastic surgery where they do some sort of flap on your back where the lump was.

Babypanda

mishno5 wrote: »

My son had his operation last August, was in hospital for a couple of weeks. He had the hoover dressing fitted. The hole was so big the nurses told me that they could have put their fist in it and you could see bone.
When he came home he had a portable hoover dressing fitted so he could walk around. A nurse had to come everyday to change the dressing. The vac dressing was taken off in November the nurse still came everyday to dress the wound. She came every day until January this year when only a small hole about a inche was left. I dress this everyday but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. We've seen the plastic surgeon again and he has said if it hasn't healed by August my son is looking at another operation to plug the hole.
I do recommed anyone who is suffering with this condition, long term, to try the hoover dressings. So far they seemed to have worked for my son . Good luck to everyone who's suffering with this condition my heart goes out to you. xx

Hi i was just wondering about the hoover dressings you tryed with your son. I myself am going in for an operation on the same condition on my back in a few weeks time and was just wondering of your opinion on the hoover dressing and where i could buy one?
Hope your son Healed well.
Babypanda

Descav

Thanks for the reply. Thats what i thought, you usually get this many years after (less invasive) other attempts have failed.

As i said I never suffered any pain from mine it was just by accident that i even showed the spot to my doctor.

A week after my operation something happened and i suffered from Late post-operative haemorrhaging. I lost a lot of blood but luckily didnt need a blood transfusion.

a few days later i had another operation whereby they opened up the wound and they let it heal over a period of weeks. The hole left was massive i could put my hand in it.

Luckily there was no pain...all the nerves must have been destroyed after first operation. And after several weeks, the wound healed. I've had no problem since thank god.

All this happened many years ago during my leaving cert which was annoying and i've always felt that there was no need for the invasive operation.

However after hearing the stories from some people of having the problem and with serious pain for years, i count myself lucky now!

Mink

I'm resurrecting this...

I'm the one that went in for 1st op Jan 2010 and was all ready to go but the cyst had healed and the consultant decided not to operate.

Fast forward a year later, started getting the pain again. It's flared up on and off since Jan, drained it myself twice (NOT recommended) and did the bath / boiled water with salt thing and it would go down but it's back again the past week or two & it's angry!!

Spoke to GP & she said to just call the consultant's office I was with before in Connolly & just get it done.

I'm raging, thought I beat it. And to top it off, only started a new job a few months ago & on the usual 6 mths probation so don't know what will happen with time off etc.

Luckily I'm not really in much pain at all, it only hurts when I sit a certain way or lying down on my back. I count myself lucky as I know others have severe pain with theirs.

Grrrr!:mad:

chappy

I had 8 years of mine coming and going before I got operated on.I honestly believe they only fully subside after surgery!

You will not know yourself once you get the op

Mink

Thanks chappy,

How long did you have to stay in hospital or were you out same day? How long til you could go back to work?

chappy

@Mink

I got out on the same day but according to all the nurses/doctors I've had mine was an extremely bad case.My wound was absolutely huge.Not to be disgusting but you could fit 2 full fists into it.

I went back to work after about 2 months but only part time as I still had the nurses coming to pack every month.I have some other health issues with caused complications with my healing so the wound is only completely closed a little while.I'd say altogether it took 8 months to completely heal.

Most peoples wounds are no where near the size of mine so don't be put off.I know people who were back to work after 2 weeks.You really don't realise the difference it will make to you until you have it removed.

Mink

chappy wrote: »

I got out on the same day but according to all the nurses/doctors I've had mine was an extremely bad case.My wound was absolutely huge.Not to be disgusting but you could fit 2 full fists into it.

:eek: Ouch!!!!

Okay, I don't know that mine would be that big. The bump at moment is the size of a 5 cent piece maybe & last I heard the tract was about an inch.

My wish would be to just be off for a week, if it was two weeks I'd deal with it & take some of it as holiday time or something.

Wow I can't believe you didn't get the op before then. I'm glad for you that you did get it in the end!

youngblood

Mine is there for about 6 years
it flares up, I salt it, it gets better,
never goes away but always there,

Im just wondering if people here would have any advice?

Today I was thinkin, what would it be like if I didnt have it? and maybe I should go for surgery?

I've read the horror stories on this forum and many others, I've read about every technique possible under the sun, and still have no idea what I could get done if I approached my doctor about getting it sorted.

I can keep it under control but ye know yerselves whats that like-so what would you guys recommend?

Keep it as it is? Or surgery?
If so, where should I go? What should I ask about?
Any advice?

chappy

@Mink... thanks.It really has made a difference to me.When mine would drain the empty pocket I could feel under the skin was about the size of a tennis ball so mine was extreme.

@Youngblood....If I was you I would suggest going for surgery.The longer you leave it the deeper the tract will go which was why mine was so severe.The most successful technique seems to be an open excision but you should get a surgeons opinion.

Mink

Go see your GP young blood, they'll refer you to a consultant & you can discuss it with them. They won't really decide what type of op to do on you until they get you on the operating table & open it up.

My thought is that if it's not healing then it's a constant wound/infection and that can't be good.

My brother in law went to A&E with his 11 years ago as it was so bad. They took him right in for surgery & it's not come back since. Another friend of mine (female) had a couple open wound surgeries, then she had a closed one & hasn't gotten it back since in 8 years.

Descav

I agree youngblood, the best thing to do is talk in as much detail as you can with your doc or consultant?

My problem was nobody told me what was going to happen. Keep informed and make sure the doctors are kept informed too.


Also I guess one issue not mentioned here is the scar, its fairly big. i'm not sure if this is normal but in effect the doctors sewed the top of my back side together, to reduce the chance of friction and reoccurance. my backside does look pretty wonky now.

youngblood

Thanks guys, it seems everyone's operation is different, but majority seems to be open wound procedures which require daily packing for 2 months?

It just seems like such an horrendous brutal and unedifying operation-monthly flare ups?-or operation? is what it has come down to it seems....
Thanks guys,all the info and what to do's helps

LegacyUser

Hi all,

I got a letter from a consultant (in the mount carmel i think), with an appointment...It's in a few weeks time after a 3 year wait...

I was just wondering should I book time of work...I was thinking of the day of the procedure & the day after...would this be enough?

The sinus that I'm getting removed is around 1 inch in circumference.. I have been told by my GP that I will be in and out as a day case, and will have to get dressings done daily. He also said that it will be done under general anaestic, another thing which I'm anxious about!

What is the general thing with these cases? Is it in and out in one day, and do you have to attend the hospital for dressing or can your own GP's nurse do them?

Also, is it very uncomfortable after the surgery? Thanks in advance

Overature

hey guys, i had the operation there nearly a week ago for the sinus, wasnt that big so they just stitched it up, im changing the dressing everyday. I have a little bit of scap build up at the top of the incesion and im just wondering is this normal or is it a sign of infection? does the wound tend to expel a certain amount of fluids after surgury? thanks

Mink

flossie - best you read back through this thread as there's lot of stories from boardsies re their pilonidal experience. Don't be put off by horror stories, yours sounds about same size as mine. I reckon you'll be off work a week but check with the consultant you are dealing with.

Overature - I'd imagine most wounds weep a little, I'd be worried re pus etc. Check with the nurse (you're prob supposed to see the public health nurse) or have a check up with the team who did the surgery no?

I'm still waiting on apt at Connolly. I had to get my GP to send a new letter some weeks ago as I'd not been into Connolly for over a year. Then waited weeks, then found out the consultant she sent the letter to is not there anymore and they are still waiting on a replacement. So got GP to send yet another letter to a different consultant. Asked girl in bookings what she estimated & she said a month or two wait

My cyst is flaring up every week or two, it more or less drains by itself but it's uncomfortable & it's draining onto my clothes, ick. Hoping I'll get an appointment sooner then a month.

ChewChew

Mink wrote: »

flossie - best you read back through this thread as there's lot of stories from boardsies re their pilonidal experience. Don't be put off by horror stories, yours sounds about same size as mine. I reckon you'll be off work a week but check with the consultant you are dealing with.

Overature - I'd imagine most wounds weep a little, I'd be worried re pus etc. Check with the nurse (you're prob supposed to see the public health nurse) or have a check up with the team who did the surgery no?

I'm still waiting on apt at Connolly. I had to get my GP to send a new letter some weeks ago as I'd not been into Connolly for over a year. Then waited weeks, then found out the consultant she sent the letter to is not there anymore and they are still waiting on a replacement. So got GP to send yet another letter to a different consultant. Asked girl in bookings what she estimated & she said a month or two wait

My cyst is flaring up every week or two, it more or less drains by itself but it's uncomfortable & it's draining onto my clothes, ick. Hoping I'll get an appointment sooner then a month.

Mink, what consultant were u origionally referred too? We had a new consultant who started monday.. Please feel free to PM me your details and I'll check it out for ya!

LegacyUser

Hi,

I had my operation over a year ago for the third time and am happy to say i'm free of the horrible problem!!! no pain nothing it's been going on for over 5 years and this is the first time i've felt really well again!!!

I attended a doctor at the Beacon Hospital he was brilliant i had to leave the wound open and let it heal the area was pretty big and took 3 months to heal (longest 3 months of my life!!) getting the dressings done daily. That was the first time it had been let heal like that previously i got stitches. every 2 months it'd happen again.

THere is an end to the problem and i feel for anyone who is suffering from it. But hang in there it does go away!!!

LegacyUser

Just had mine operated on 2 days ago, 1st op, it's appearently fairly shallow and has been left open and packed everyday. Not painful at all but uncomfortable, and given how close to my ass it is, keeping it clean is not the easiest. I org. thought it was a spot, up to the point it burst and made a MESS. Can't wait for it to fecking heal now.

For anyone thinking of just leaving it, I have read that if left untreated it is possible that new tracts will branch off the sinus, needing an even larger excision.

Mink

Hi Pita, yes that's a good point not to leave it and hope for the best. I've been tempted to. I had an apt for mid Oct but it got moved to December. It had calmed down for the past month or so but I'm sensing it's return this week! If I get seen end of December then I'm hoping to get in for the operation maybe the following Feb?
I've been told by someone who got repeat operations that it only went away when they had a stitched up operation

dobaluchi

If Only I had done this first. It does'nt have to be so difficult.

Wow, just searching on boards for a health issue and came across this thread for PS. I had PS when I lived in London aged about 22. I had it removed locally by a GP. I returned to Ireland and yep you guessed it, it returned again. I was scheduled for an operation in the old Adelaide Meath Hospital and had to return for the old wound dressing nightmare made bearable by the sexy nurses.

Anyway it was' nt healing as it should and by a friends recommendation, I arrived at the sports and acupuncture clinic in Tallaght.

The lady there did a vega test with this machine that reads your bodies energy levels and she told me that I had PS. I did not tell her. She said she gets loads of women in with it. I was amazed she discovered it with out me telling her. Anyway she gave me these drops to take in water 3 times a day and lo and behold it healed internally.

The docs were amazed at the rapid healin and I did not tell them how I was cured less than a week.

She also told me I had recurring infections in my right urether which was also true and gave me drops for that. I used to get excruciating pain every 6 mnths but it never once affected me after that.

If only I had discovered this before all those operations. I thinkmthey are gone now but there is a chap in still organ that has this machine. It is alternative but it worked for me and sooooooooo much easier than trad medicine. It's worth a shot.

Also it's worth mentioning that you might want to wipe your ass with your hands between your legs so you clean from the top of your ass downwards and not upwards.

The combination of bacteria and sweat and hair friction is what causes it. So wipe downwards and use wipes to area clean will help reoccurrence.

cutehoor

Hi All!

New to boards - first post, and as I have been through the mill with PS I thought I'd share.
Firstly for me I have PS disease which I think was hereditary. I'm not overly hairy and laser or veet wouldn't have mattered a damn.I had recurring PS not due to cleanliness or hair but simply because I was prone to pits forming.

I first got the symptoms in 2006 and had emergency surgery on it, told by a lovely surgeon that it was a "nest of hairs" that collected at the base of my spine and that it wouldn't come back. I asked if they found any hair in it (my complete shame at an ingrown hair) and low and behold he didn't fine anything but stressed it was caused by a hair.

5 weeks of packing later and told it wouldn't reoccur I was sent on my merry way back to normality. Over the next two years it flared up about 3 times but I caught it early got anti biotics and got it sorted.

I moved to England in the mean time and it flared again, emergency surgery again - packing this time 8 weeks. Told I was a hairy so and so, that it rarely if ever occured in women. Also told it wouldn't come back.

Six months later flew back to Ireland for a weekend, felt a twinge thought I'd go to hospital just to be on the safe side. Surgery again. 6 weeks packing.

Back to London and I made an appt with a private surgeon through Bupa. He assessed me and actually explained what pilonidal disease was. Basically I had 5 pits at the base of my spine (cleft of the buttocks, you know yourself!) any of which could become infected - due to dead skin, a loose hair (from my head) certain fabric, if my body was run down and not able to fight the intruder!

He said that he would perform the Karadakis flap procdeure on me with a 60% success rate. He then changed his mind after the initial consultation because, yep you guessed it, it came back again.
He performed the lindberg flap (95% success rate) which takes out all of the tissue with pits and the old scar tissue and moves the offending area creating quite a big scar and flattening of the area.

I haven't looked back. It has simply changed my life.

Most people shouldn't get a reoccurence but if you do, I suggest you go to a specialist colorectal surgeon.

As for dealing with the pain, tramadol and solpadol did the job for me.

Bathe the area daily before packing with warm water, not only does this keep the area clean, it also numbs it a little before the packing.
in all the times I had it, it never got infected and the area always healed very well. Bathing I think is key, with a good diet and vitamins to counteract the amount of anti biotics.

If the PS bursts, straight into a bath with sea salt and sit in it for ages and clean as much as you can. Then straight into the doctor / nurse for a thorough clean out. This helps recovery only, not reoccurance.

I think I could write a book about the damn thing, which is possibly one of the most embarassing illnesses for a girl!

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on this thread and if you need any more info ask away!

SilverSparkle

After having my last surgery in June 2010 and not posting in here since then I'm worried that I will have to post in here more often... My pilonidal sinus has been hurting me for 2 weeks... It feels like a pulsing pain and the scar is a bit puffy

cutehoor

Silversparkle, it sounds like it is infected again. Get to a doctor as soon as you can and they make be able to give you a good dose of antibiotics.
The things with these buggers is they flare up any time so getting to a doctor immediately is the best thing you can do.
Then get your doctor to refer you for surgery to get the pilonidal sorted, once it reoccurs once you can be sure it will reoccur again.

Best of luck!

SilverSparkle

cutehoor wrote: »

Silversparkle, it sounds like it is infected again. Get to a doctor as soon as you can and they make be able to give you a good dose of antibiotics.
The things with these buggers is they flare up any time so getting to a doctor immediately is the best thing you can do.
Then get your doctor to refer you for surgery to get the pilonidal sorted, once it reoccurs once you can be sure it will reoccur again.

Best of luck!

This is the worst scenario ever.... After 4 surgeries in 7 months I had hoped it would all be over... I will go to my college nurse tomorrow and see what she says

SilverSparkle

So now I'm on a course of antibiotics in the hope it will kill any comeback of the PS!

roman.cica

how much could cost this surgery? if i don't have medical card?

James Forde

Just to answer the above question. I recently had the procedure (day patient) I was referred to the hospital by my doctor so I only had to pay the fee for the use of a bed. I don't have a medical card or health insurance.