IS HISTOPATHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF EXCISION MATERIAL IN PILONIDAL SINUS SURGERIES A WASTE OF COST, TIME AND LABOR?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Pilonidal sinus (PS) surgery is one of the most common operations performed in general surgery. Although different treatments are used nowadays, the main treatment of the disease is still surgical excision. Malignant degeneration is very low in patients with chronic pilonidal sinus.Cases have been reported in the literature as case reports. In this study, we aimed to reveal the necessity of routine histopathological examination of the excision material in PS surgery. MATERIAL & METHODS We have considered patients in our hospital database, who had pilonidal sinus surgery with a diagnosis of PS retrospectively. 939 patients , whose histopathological examination reports of PS excision specimen were accessed , were included in the study. RESULTS Of the 939 patients included in the study, 721 of which (76.8%) are male and 218 of which (23.2%) are female. The mean age of the patients is 25.6 ± 7.4 (min- max :59) years. The number of patients over 50 years was 24 (2.6%). The number of patients operated with recurrent pilonidal sinus was 26 (2.8%). No malignancy was observed in any of the histopathological examinations of 939 excision materials. CONCLUSION No malignancy has been detected in any of our PS cases in the histopathological examination. The necessity of routine histopathological examination of PS excision materials should be questioned and discussed. It causes both a waste of time and money. However, it can be considered for the patients over 50, since the literature shows an increase in risk of malignancy after this age.