
I received an email in the recent past from a mother who told the story of her teen age son and the emotional toll his failed pilonidal treatments had taken on him and his family. Bill went through high school dealing with the annoying drainage, smell, and embarrassing staining. After graduation, he wanted to beContinue reading “A Mother’s Plea: Treating her Son’s Pilonidal Disease”
A story that demonstrates how much of our medical community fails in properly treating pilonidal disease: Daniel is a 17-year-old patient with pilonidal disease (often called a pilonidal cyst). He developed his first pilonidal abscess at age 16. He was treated with antibiotics and was in terrible pain for a week, after which he couldn’tContinue reading “Improper medical treatment for pilonidal disease”

I was a freshman in college and spent long hours in the library studying. The chairs were wooden and not comfortable, but they kept me awake. Near the end of my first semester, I began having a pain back there. It was a pain in my ass. I had never experienced this before. Several daysContinue reading “A College Freshman’s Story of Pilonidal Surgery”
I had my pilonidal for several years before I found this website in my attempt to deal with the problem once and for all. Through this site, I discovered the “cleft lift” proceedure as pioneered by Dr. John Bascom of Oregon. I decided to call Dr. Bascom, and he referred me to San Francisco based surgeonContinue reading “Discovering the ‘Cleft Lift’”

This is the story of a college football Star and a Pilonidal Disease. Let’s call him Tony, is a star tight end for a California College football team, not far from San Francisco. He tolerated his nuisance pilonidal abscess (also called a pilonidal cyst) throughout the football season and school year, waiting until school’s endContinue reading “The Story of a College Football Star and a Pilonidal Cyst”
My son had surgery for a pilonidal cyst 4 years ago, he continued to have pain after surgery, had 2 more surgeries last year and had to leave school because it got to the point where he could not sit anymore—we saw Dr Sternberg for this, he recommended a “cleft lift procedure”. My son hadContinue reading “Finally, a Successful Surgery”

Andy was a star baseball player in high school. He was destined to be a division 1 college baseball star too. He was highly recruited and received a full scholarship at one of his top school choices. He had the brightest of futures. School started as did baseball practice, but something was wrong. Andy hadContinue reading “The Cleft Lift Procedure Saved my Baseball Career”
This dude is a pilonidal expert. For those that don’t know what this is, it’s this really annoying cyst in your butt crack that makes it hurt to sit down. It’s like having a zit / bruise on the end of your spinal cord. This doctor always relieves my pain and is a very niceContinue reading “High praise from a grateful sufferer of an acute pilonidal abscess that was drained with great relief”

I feel that we doctors are in a rut when it comes to the care of pilonidal problems. ER, Urgent Care, Pediatricians, Dermatologists, and Internists often have a tough time making the diagnosis and even a more difficult time directing the proper path for treatment. More concerning is that many surgeons who ultimately treat theContinue reading “My Senior Year of College was Ruined by a Bad Operation for my Pilonidal Cyst”