Hi to all my son who is 23 now suffered from a pilonidal...

Hi

I read your comments with interest. Your son has obviously been through a very difficult time and I am glad this final treatment seems to have worked. My 24 year old son has just had this operation for the first time about a month ago. He was not told about the pain, time off work or follow up after the op which has made me very angry. At the moment he is having daily dressings and it seems to be healing well. Neither he nor I were given the full picture in terms of re-occurrence. I was very interested to read about 'hyperbaric oxygen' treatment. What is it?

Kind regards

Sally

:lol:

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Hi Sally I am sorry to hear that your son has this condition.I tried to reply to your letter yesterday but pressed the wrong button. Anyway I will get this right today.I will tell you the story of what happened to my son. The first operation was done by a general surgeon and the wound did not heal after several months, then the same surgeon did another operation and again the wound did not heal. My son was then referred to a plastic surgeon who also did 2 operations and after both of these procedures the wound did not heal,after months of pain and discomfort my son was fed up. We followed both surgeons post op care instructions to the letter. My son was then referred to another general surgeon who had dealt with this condition before and another operation was done, again after following the surgeons instructions on post op care to the letter the wound did not heal. Back to the doctor again after several months and another operation planned. This was at the end of 2 years and 5 operations with a 6th operation planned. At this stage my son , wife and I were fed up and desperate.

I was at the time a Chief Petty Officer in the South AFrican Navy and was responsible for the electrical maintenance of the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and compressor, which is used for the treatment of the bends(nitrogen in the blood) in diving related incidents. It has been used to assist in the healing of open wounds, to assist in the healing of broken bones (sports injuries)

and many more.

I arranged for my son after the 6th operation and during post op care to have hyperbaric oxygen treatment. ( he was put in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and taken to a depth of between 5 and 15 metres, while in the chamber he would breathe oxygen for a time then breathe air and then back to breathing oxygen. the session would last for an hour. he had 10 sessions .To obtain details of how the treatment should be done I contacted Dr Frans Cronje in Pretoria and spoke to his partner Dr Heleen Bierman, she was able to give me advice on how to go about the treatment. The person who operated the chamber was Commander H. Cunningham SA Navy and he was in contact with Dr Cronje.As I understand the treatment, it is not to replace the operation or the surgeons post op care, bandages,antseptic creams etc but to assist in the healing of the open wound. This is done by breathing oxygen under pressure and by doing this the oxygen gets to the cells of the body faster .)After having the hyperbaric oxygen treatment during the post op care , 6th operation the wound healed, it has been 2 years since and my son has had no further complications.

I sent this information to Dr Keith Harding of the wounds research centre in Wales, to try and help others with pilonidal sinus.

The problem you may encounter is that not many Doctors understand what this can do and will not suppport the treatment. The surgeons who we had to deal with said it would not work and that is why I was in contact with Dr Frans Cronje and Dr Heleen Bierman,if you want to know more you can go on the internet , google and type in Dr Frans Cronje or you can type in hyperbaric oxygen treatment ( open wounds) or you can contact me and I will try to help you find out more about hyperbaric oxygen treatment( arthur_bailey@standfast-barracks.com

I hope this helps and your son has a speedy recovery.

As far as I am aware hyperbaric oxygen treatment is available in the UK

regards Arthur

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Hi Arthur

Thank you so much for your very full response. Your poor son - it sounds as if he was very lucky to have such a pro-active father. The hyperbaric oxygen treatment sounds very interesting and I am so glad your son is now recovered.

Things have moved on since I last wrote - after 6 weeks of daily dressing which I took over for the last couple of weeks(after some training from the nurse), my son's wound seems to have fully healed. My main worry was keeping the wound open so that there weren't any pockets left underneath - if anything I think I 'over-packed' on occasion. He is no longer in any pain or discomfort and has his third hospital appointment in about 3 weeks. It has been a very worrying and distressing time for him and the rest of us.

It really helped me to contact someone who has been through a similar experience - although your son's experience sounded far worse that my son. I really appreciate your support and also the information which I will keep just in case there are any further complications.

It seems incredible to me that something condsidered fairly minor by the medical profession can cause so much pain and discomfort usually to young adults.

Fingers crossed for both our sons.

All the best

Sally

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