Romanowski KS, et al. - Researchers here aimed at reviewing their experience with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) treatment in a large surgical cohort. As per findings, ablative excision of HS-affected skin and wound closure with split-thickness skin grafts was a safe, reliable, and efficacious treatment.

Methods

• From 2000 to 2014, researchers performed a retrospective review of 98 consecutive HS patients.
• They used a two-stage operative approach.
• Removal of all the hair-bearing skin in the affected areas down to healthy tissue was involved in the first stage.
• This was followed by the application of split-thickness skin grafts 48 to 72 hours later.
• They performed descriptive statistics to delineate the population and assess outcomes.

Results

• Young (36 ± 12 years) and predominately female (65, 66%) patients comprised the study population; the patients were obese (body mass index, 36 ± 8.3 kg/m²) and smokers (73, 73.7%).
• The majority of the patients presented with axillary disease (73%).
• Researchers performed 144 debridement procedures and 146 grafting procedures with a mean area grafted being 416 ± 500 cm² (90–3400 cm²).
• Regrafting was required only in 9 (9%) patients, with the mean area regrafted being 140 ± 93 cm².
• Regrafting was not performed for graft failure of less than 30%.
• They noticed that 94.7% of all wounds were fully grafted and closed at 30 days after the initial procedure.
• Ablation of the infected distorted glands was performed for advanced stages of HS for controlling recurrent infections.