Summary

• Common debilitating condition that usually affects young men of working age.
• An acquired disease in which hair follicles become inserted into the skin, creating a chronic sinus tract, usually in the natal cleft.
• Conservative (non-surgical) treatments have yielded mixed reports of success. Definitive treatment is usually surgical, although many different techniques are available, and complications of tissue healing are frequent.
• Acute infection may lead to a pilonidal abscess, requiring urgent surgical drainage.