Surgical treatment of chronic suppurative hidradenitis.

Abstract

CHRONIC suppurative hidradenitis (hidrosadenitis suppurativa) is an inflammatory disease that most commonly involves the skin and adjacent subcutaneous tissues of the axillary, inguinal, submammary, perianal and genital regions. This disease in the chronic stage of development is manifested by sinus tracts, abscesses and ulcers. The process affects chiefly the apocrine type of sweat gland, hence the foregoing favorite sites of location. The disease is primarily a dermatologic one, and most of the literature is found among the dermatologic writings. The small percentage of cases that eventually become chronic, with the development of extensive sinus tracts and abscesses, cease to become medical problems, and the treatment advocated in the literature is described curtly, i. e., plastic surgery. The exact nature of this operation is not explained, and little can be found about it in the surgical literature. The skin contains two types of sweat glands, the eccrine and apocrine. The eccrine