Comparison of treatment of pilonidal sinus using phenol injection versus wide excision with secondary healing.

Objective: To compare mean early post-operative pain and frequency of wound healing of pilonidal sinus using application of crystallized phenol versus wide excision with open healing. Study Design: Randomized Controlled Trial. Setting: Department of Surgical, Allied Hospital Faisalabad. Period: 13-10-2018 to 12-04-2019. Material & Methods: A total of 60 patients were operated in our unit during the study period and were allocated into two groups randomly: Group A and Group B. The patients in Group A underwent treatment using crystallized phenol. Patients in Group B underwent wide local excision of the pilonidal sinus tract. All patients were given single dose of broad-spectrum antibiotic at time of procedure. Analgesia in post-operative period was maintained by using Diclofenac Sodium (Inj Artifen 75mg/3ml IM) as requested by the patient as long as the safe dose is not exceeded. First assessment of all patients was done at 24 hours after surgery. The analgesic requirement and visual analog scale score were documented for patients of both groups at this time. Follow up visit for patients in both groups was scheduled at 3 weeks after treatment. All the data was collected with the help of a specially designed Performa. Results: Mean pain score in Group-A was calculated as 1.36±0.55 and in Group-B it was 3.23±0.82, p value was 0.0001, comparison of wound healing in both groups shows that wound healing in Group-A was in 80%(n=24) and in Group-B, it was 30%(n=9), p value was 0.0001. Conclusion: We concluded that mean early post-operative pain and frequency of wound healing of pilonidal sinus using application of crystallized phenol is significantly lower when compared with wide excision with open healing.