Pilonidal cyst: wait and see or surgery?

[FiveHoursSleep]

My DD(12) complained of a sore bottom about 10 days ago, and I managed to take a quick look at it and found it to be a real mess.
She has ASD and is very private, but we got her to A &E and it was found she had a Pilonidal sinus draining blood and pus from it. She had a red, swollen area the size of a bread and butter plate. It was really nasty.
Antibiotics have sorted out the infection but she still has a hole that is draining serum and the doctor we saw suggested we just leave it and see if it heals up itself.
From what I've read online, a lot of these sinuses do get infected again but DH thinks it might be worth waiting to see what happens and to avoid surgery unless it's really necessary.
I'm leaning towards her having surgery ASAP as if it recurs again, it might be at a less 'convenient' time. She's in Y8 now, so it doesn't matter too much if she has some time off school but next year, and the years after will be more important.
There is a 3-4 month wait on the NHS but we have private insurance so could get it done sooner.
Has anyone got any experience of these sinuses not needing surgery, especially with female youngsters?

Get it done. I had an abscess in my armpit. It closed, then reopened a year later, stayed open for 6 months, repeat X 3
It's a warm area, somewhere not easy to heal

Pilonidal's are AWFUL so my sympathy goes out to your DD :-(

I think that if she is likely to need surgery, now would be better than possibly in a year or so (when she's older). The post op care is quite invasive too (they basically cleat out the area and 'pack' it). The idea being it then heals from the bottom up instead of just healing over and leaving a void. The pack needs changing regularly (childrens community nurses) and can be quite unpleasant.

Thanks for the information. We've decided to go for it so have her booked in for a week's time. I hope it all goes okay.

Hope it all goes okay. Keep us posted? Here if you need any support post op too x

DD had her op on Monday. It wasn't deep enough to need packing thank goodness and although it's sore, she can now sit down gingerly on a donut cushion.
She wants to go back to school next week as it's activity week but I'm a bit worried she'll be doing too much. They are going everywhere by coach though and she can always sit down if it's too much.

What kind of activities will they be doing? Are the community nurses coming to do wound checks? See how she is, she might be up for it and healed enough by then :-)

She's gone in today. She didn't need any packing as it wasn't that deep , just had a wodge of hair jammed up inside it.
It had a dressing on it which has come off now and seems to be healing well. The sutures are soluble but are a bit itchy, I think.

Definitely think that you made the right choice getting it done now then :-)

I took the surgical option twice - but the recovery was so bloody awful that after that I lanced it myself and took a lot of salt baths.

Not sure what the moral of the story is - but to say just because it's been surgically removed once is no guarantee it's gone forever. I've had about a dozen although touch wood none now for over a decade.

Urgh, I'm hoping that there will be no more for a while at least!