title: [Pit-picking surgery for pilonidal disease].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The pit-picking method was first described by J. Bascom in 1980, however, this minimally invasive technique is used only by a minority of surgeons yet.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surgery was performed under local anesthesia. All primary pits in the midline were removed by excising a border of skin of <1 mm and a 1 cm long incision was made parallel to one side of the cleft to open the chronic abscess cavity. No specific postoperative wound care was given.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pit-picking surgery was carried out 157 times in a total of 153 patients (126 males) between June 2007 and November 2010. Follow-up information was available in 123 cases and 21 patients (17%) developed disease recurrence after a mean follow-up time of 7.1 months. By multivariate analysis, a body mass index (BMI) >25 kg/m(2) (p=0.019) and duration of the disease of ≥6 months (p=0.017) were statistically significantly associated with disease recurrence after pit-picking surgery. The recurrence occurred more often in male than in female patients (20% versus 4.5%, p=0.12)
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with pilonidal disease can be successfully treated by the pit-picking procedure in more than 80% of selected cases. Female patients and non-overweight male patients with short-term disease benefit most from this treatment method.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemein- und Viszeralchirurgie, Marienhospital Gelsenkirchen, Deutschland. i.iesalnieks@marienhospital.eu
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Iesalnieks
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deimel
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kienle
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schlitt
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zülke
mesh_terms: D000038:Abscess / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D010864:Pilonidal Sinus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology