I’m 18 and from Seattle, Washington. When we went on lock-down in March of 2020, I began to sit for hours at a time, studying, reading, and eventually Zoom schooling. I first realized that something was wrong when I developed a painful swelling just above my buttock crack. I figured that it was from allContinue reading “Living with an open wound since early in the pandemic”
My son is no longer living in pain and hiding from the world because of this disease. Dr. Sternberg saved my sons life and I will always be grateful. He cares and is the best! — Monica
Draining a pilonidal abscess (I&D) should be in the bag of tricks of any emergency room, urgent care doctor, or surgeon. But the practice is very variable, and many patients have unsatisfactory experiences. Here are the main issues, and I will say this is somewhat controversial as while I feel that I am promoting well-established best practices,Continue reading “Draining a Pilonidal Abscess: Controversies and Best Practices”
Many surgeons choose to treat pilonidal patients with disfiguring, wide-excisional operations hoping to completely remove the elusive cyst. The problem is that many of these radical operations for pilonidal disease: 1) often don’t work and can lead to a recurrence as they fail to shallow the cleft, eliminate dead space under the skin surface, andContinue reading “I am on a mission to educate patients and the surgical community”
It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks! And it’s a challenge to get surgeons to change the way they treat a particular condition after residency training. Surgeons are trained by their mentors to do things in a certain way. Most are wedded to that way. Change is difficult and many surgeons are cautious in adopting new surgicalContinue reading “How do we Teach Proper Pilonidal Surgery Technique? “
Few surgeons truly have a desire or interest in taking care of pilonidal patients and many of their operations make the problem worse. Not everyone should be performing the cleft lift. It is technically demanding, requires good three-dimensional planning, and adequate patience to meticulously perform the operation. So, if the surgeon you’re consulting withContinue reading “How do you know if a surgeon is a pilonidal expert?”
After four failed and mentally taxing surgeries, I knew I needed to find a surgeon that truly cared about the outcome of their patients . . . finding the Sternberg Clinic was a game changer! Not only was the process of flying and staying in San Francisco (from UT) to get surgery very pleasant (thanksContinue reading “‘Please don’t get any other surgeries besides the Cleft Lift’”
During my training as a general and colon and rectal surgeon, I was complicit in many poorly planned and executed operations for pilonidal disease. Patients would come to the operating room with a symptomatic but small appearing problem, and they would leave with a huge hole in their backside. In the resident clinic I would see theseContinue reading “Surgeons, please partner with me in changing the way we treat pilonidal disease.”
It has been almost a year since my cleft lift surgery and I have had no issues. Outpatient surgery, I was on my way home the next day. Recovery was so quick and painless. After suffering for years with this disease and always worrying about sitting too hard, or another infection, the pain… now, IContinue reading “‘I recommend this procedure 100%’”
I went to get the surgery from Dr.Sternberg three months ago and it’s completely changed my life for the better. In the first two weeks I was completely pain free and able to move around like nothing happened. Two weeks later, I was able to get back into the gym and was able to doContinue reading “‘Completely changed my life for the better’”