My son is going to have more than one surgery for a pilonidal cyst, is this a common thing to do more than 1?

Question

Did I mention he is only 15 years old?

Answer 1

I'm 26 and I'm on my way to surgery #2. I was well aware before the first surgery ever took place that multiple surgeries MAY be needed. I learned this from internet research and from multiple surgeons. It all depends on how your wound heals. If it doesn't heal properly from the inside of the muscle to the outside of the skin, the surgery was useless. Also, it depends on whether or not your son has tunnels from the original cyst. Some surgeons usually try to remove the whole cyst, but that cant be done in all cases, like mine. I have tunnels measuring almost two inches down from my original cyst. My first hole was 4 inches in a circle, and two inches deep. I could stick a tennis ball inside of the hole. Now, I can just imagine how big this one will be! One other factor could be how well it was taken care of after surgery. If it got slightly infected in the least, that will be cause for another surgery. I took a bath 4 times a day for two weeks. And, if I urinated or had a bowel movement, I took a bath besides, usually adding up to 6-8 baths a day for 15 minutes each. I changed the dressing constantly and flushed it out with sterill water all the time. And last but not least, this type of cyst can grow back in two seconds flat, again and again, regardless of how you cared for it. So to answer your question, it is very common to have the surgery more than once. I have heard of people having it 4 times already. The only bad thing, your but starts to loose its curves and shape because you keep loosing skin and muscle. Well, I wish your son good luck, and hopefully this will be his last surgery.

Answer 2

Sometimes the cyst is infected and/or very large and needs time to drain and heal so they leave it open so it can heal naturally. However sometimes a second operation later may be needed to close it up if it can not heal naturally or other reason.

Answer 3

Here is a wikipedia link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilonidal_cyst
abcesses can sometimes come back after they are lanced. They hurt like ****.