Practice patterns of paediatric surgeons on treating pilonidal sinus disease — a national survey study

TL;DR

This study surveyed German pediatric surgeons to understand how they treat pilonidal sinus disease in children, finding that traditional methods are preferred over recommended guidelines.

Contribution

The study provides the first national survey data on surgical practices for pediatric pilonidal sinus disease in Germany.

Findings

Most surgeons use excision and secondary closure or vacuum-assisted closure for pilonidal sinus disease.

Pit-picking is a commonly used approach despite not being part of adult-based guidelines.

Few surgeons follow national guidelines or pediatric treatment algorithms for this condition.

Abstract

Paediatric pilonidal sinus disease is considered a separate entity of disease due to differing recurrence dynamics. However, there are almost no data on real-world surgical care and practice patterns for children and adolescents. We therefore aimed to gather such data surveying a representative sample of German paediatric surgeons.

Some 101 German paediatric surgical departments and surgeries with inpatient beds were surveyed for their surgical approach to paediatric pilonidal sinus disease. The survey included demographics, information on practice setting, as well as the primary and secondary approach to pilonidal disease and three virtual patient scenarios.

A total of 40 institutions (33 departments and 7 office-based paediatric surgeons) responded (recall rate 40%). Of these, 18/40 reported performing 10–20, and 9/40 perform 5–10 pilonidal sinus operations annually. 17/39 respondents have less than 10% recurrences among their patient cohort and 15/39 operate on 11–20% recurrences among their patients. The most frequently reported surgical approach was excision and secondary closure with 17/39, followed by excision and vacuum-assisted closure (13/39), and pit-picking (12/39). Intraoperative use of blue dyes report 15/39 and 29/39 continue postoperative outpatient care at their institution. Acute pilonidal sinus with abscess is treated with a two-staged approach within four weeks by 15/39 while 11 institutions wait more than four weeks until definitive surgery. In recurrent cases, the majority of 20/39 does not switch their approach, while 13/39 switch to excision and secondary closure, and 11/39 switch to excision and vacuum-assisted closure.

German paediatric surgeons prefer traditional approaches to pilonidal sinus diseases, but pit-picking is frequently used. Neither the adult-based national guideline recommendations nor paediatric treatment algorithms have been widely implemented. The reasons for these deviations from recommendations and favouring traditional approaches remain unclear.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00384-025-04959-x.

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