Pilonidal Disease in Adolescents

Pilonidal disease often begins in adolescence, when pain, drainage, and repeated wound care can disrupt school, sport, and social life. This book is a practical, evidence-based guide for pediatric surgeons, trainees, and the wider care team managing sacrococcygeal pilonidal disease in young people aged 10-19 years. It follows the full course of care: disease origins, clinical assessment, conservative treatment and hair management, minimally invasive and endoscopic procedures, excision and flap reconstruction, postoperative recovery, recurrence and revision surgery, long-term follow-up, and transition to adult services. Each technique is presented together with the populations studied, the outcomes reported, and the limits of the evidence. Special attention is given to how outcomes are defined, distinguishing a wound that never healed from true recurrence after healing. Rather than a rigid algorithm, the book offers a clear framework for choosing treatment that balances durable disease control with the burden of care and the adolescent's return to everyday life.