Conservative Versus Surgical Treatment of Umbilical Pilonidal Disease

Because of its rarity, umbilical pilonidal sinus (UPS) is still poorly understood in terms of diagnosis, etiology, and the best treatment options.

UPS is thought caused by hair penetrating the skin, leading to a foreign-body reaction and development of a sinus lined with granulation tissue. Most of the patients complain of pain, discharge or bleeding from the umbilicus when symptoms develop. It can be diagnosed with a careful examination, in which hairs can be seen deep in the umbilicus and usually protrude from a small sinus.

Regarding the optimal treatment of the disease, a complete consensus has not yet been achieved. Some publications are recommended conservative treatment, while surgical treatment is recommended in others.

A more meaningful comparison of the two modalities is that of a randomized controlled trial. We, therefore, present our data of prospective randomized controlled clinical trial comparing conservative versus surgical treatment of UPS.

This was a multicenter, prospective balanced randomization, double blind, active-controlled, parallel-group, superiority study conducted in Turkey, under the direction of a principal investigator (MK). Eligible patients with UPS were randomized for either conservative treatment (CT) or surgical treatment (ST), and then the results of both groups were compared.

Inclusion criteria

• all patients willing to participate to the study with the diagnosis of umbilical pilonidal sinus

Exclusion criteria

• no informed consent
• serious coagulation abnormalities
• known allergy to local anesthetics
• pregnancy, or women who refused contraception at the time of treatment
• other concomitant umbilical pathologies such as umbilical hernia, granuloma, dermoid cyst
• the patients who diagnosed with urachal and omphalomesenteric anomalies through radiological investigation
• patients who underwent umbilical operation