Pilonidal Disease: The Blog
Short Advice Articles, Brief Updates
Occasional posts from Dr. Sternberg and the staff at the Sternberg Clinic. We are on a mission to educate the medical community and patients about the best outcomes for Pilonidal Disease utilizing the Cleft Lift Procedure.
Make the Cleft Lift Procedure Your First Choice of Surgery
So, you develop a symptomatic pilonidal “cyst” (really an abscess), or sinus and you see a local surgeon. The surgeon advises surgery. What operation does that surgeon recommend? This is a critical question for anybody with symptoms of pilonidal disease (often incorrectly…
Don’t Live with Failed Surgery for a Pilonidal Cyst
Are you dealing with a failed “pilonidal cyst” surgery? Learn about the Cleft Lift Procedure. So, you have had one, or more, operations for your pilonidal disease (often incorrectly referred to as a pilonidal cyst), and now you have a recurrence or…
Pilonidal Disease: Truths, Myths, and Pearls
Dr. Sternberg will be presenting a talk on Pilonidal Disease: Truths, Myths, and Pearls as part of the Colorectal Surgery Virtual Educational Series (CRSVirtualEd) on March 26th at 7pm EST. (https://crsvirtualed.org/) The talk will be intended for a medical audience made up…
Underappreciated and Misunderstood
Pilonidal disease is a common condition affecting perhaps 1% of the young population in the United States. Few medical practitioners appreciate the prevalence of this condition, and it is surprising how misunderstood this condition is by medical providers including surgeons. Way too…
Dr. Sternberg Awarded Top Doctor
Our commitment to successful outcomes for patients with Pilonidal Disease has been recognized by Castle Connolly again in 2023. After being nominated by other doctors, Dr. Sternberg has been awarded “Top Doctor” status. This means that Dr. Sternberg, and the Sternberg Clinic,…
Dr. Sternberg Paper Published
Dr. Sternberg’s paper has been published in the Seminars in Colon and Rectal Surgery journal. The Cleft Lift procedure for pilonidal disease renamed as rotation and advancement flap procedure (RAF): Insights and technical tips for a successful outcome is available online here.…
Is Surgery Inevitable for Pilonidal Disease
Clearly, if you develop pilonidal disease, you would like to avoid surgery if possible. Surgical avoidance, however, may not be completely under your control. For early, mild pilonidal disease with a small pit or two and occasional pain, surgery may not be…
Living with an open wound since early in the pandemic
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…
Draining a Pilonidal Abscess: Controversies and Best Practices
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…
I am on a mission to educate patients and the surgical community
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…
How do we Teach Proper Pilonidal Surgery Technique?
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…
How do you know if a surgeon is a pilonidal expert?
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…
Surgeons, please partner with me in changing the way we treat pilonidal disease.
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…
Patient Prep: Traveling to San Francisco for Pilonidal care during COVID-19
This has been a difficult eight months for all of us. The time has been particularly challenging for patients with Pilonidal Disease, particularly those who must to travel outside of their local medical community to find a surgeon who can provide proper…
I’m a gamer! Why does my butt hurt so bad?
If you spend hours sitting in front of a computer monitor or TV screen playing video games, you’re at risk of developing a common pain in your butt better known in the medical community as Pilonidal Disease (aka Pilonidal Cyst). Patients suffering…
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
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