Comparison of primary repair with healing by secondary intention for the treatment of pilonidal sinus, at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

Abstract

The aim of our study is to assess the surgical outcome of healing by primary intention and compare it with primary repair for the treatment of pilonidal sinus. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Tertiary Care Center in Karachi Pakistan. Period: Two years from April 2015 to April 2017. Materials and Methods: 60 patients were divided into two groups by utilizing a Random Allocation Software. All the patients involved in the study signed a duly informed consent. The inclusion criteria were patients who presented to us with a pilonidal sinus and agreed to participate in the study. All the procedures were performed by the same team of surgeons. Patient follow up was bi-weekly at the outpatient. Data were collected in a predesigned proforma with various variables such as patient demographics, clinical findings, treatment option used, postoperative results, complications (if any), healing time, length of hospital stay and time for a return to function among others. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21.0. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: N= 60 patients were included in the study. There were n= 51 men (85%) and n= 9 women (15%). The mean age of patients in group A was 26.45 +/- 5.81 years and the mean age of participants in group B was 27.10 +/- 5.75 years. Symptoms lasted for 6.52 +/- 2.03 days, the most common presenting complaint was pain in 51.66% of patients followed by discharge in 40% and swelling in 33.33% respectively. The mean length of stay at the hospital for both the groups was 4.40 +/- 2.11 days (4.09 +/- 1.96 days in group A and 4.85 +/- 2.33 days in group B), mean time to return to normal functioning was 17.88 +/- 8.46 days (14.50 +/- 7.30 days in group A and 23.80 +/- 6.50 days in group B). The mean healing time postoperatively for both the groups was 39.98 +/- 24.46 days (21.90 +/- 10.15 days in group A and 67.30 +/- 9.09 days in group B. Early postoperative infection was found in n=7 (11.66%) patients, wound necrosis was found in n= 2 (3.33%) patients, and recurrence of the pilonidal sinus was found in n= 3 (5%) of the patients respectively. Conclusion: According to the results of our study primary closure technique provides better outcomes in terms of early return to functioning, shorter duration of wound healing and lower rates of wound infection as compared to excision and healing by secondary intention.