In TV dramas, they often feature diseases that aren’t widely known. These are the pilonidal cyst, which was featured in an episode of Call the Midwife. Although the series is set in mid-20th-century Britain, the condition of pilonidal cyst remains a prevalent affliction today. It is a torment that affects thousands of people annually, it can be unbearable and it may call for surgical intervention. Knowing what a pilonidal cyst is, how it surfaces, and pilonidal cyst treatment options helps lay the groundwork for how it became a thing on the show in the first place — and why it’s still a thing, medically speaking, today.
What is a pilonidal cyst?
If you have a pilonidal cyst, you’ll often need pilonidal cyst treatments by a doctor. The cyst is usually filled with hair, dirt and bits of dead skin. If it becomes angry, it can be agonizing, swollen and pustulant. At times, the cyst may rupture with leakage of fluid into the abdomen and cause acute pain.
Why do pilonidal cysts form?
The general consensus among most medical professionals is that a combination of ingrown hairs and friction causes it. Is where the back has a depression at the base of the spine and hair can tend to show up. Sticky hairs “Your body rejects that hair as a foreign body, and it forms a plug around that hair, that’s a cyst When the hairs get stuck, your body doesn’t like them. Chronic sitting, if combined with abundant body hair, and tight clothing are factors that could elevate the risk. It is even plausible that these risk factors account for the fact that pilonidal cysts were known as “Jeep driver’s disease” during World War II, when soldiers in vehicles developed them after sitting in a seated position for long periods of time.
What did a pilonidal cyst look like on Call the Midwife?
Nor was it some kind of fictional medical plot line for Call the Midwife, but it was also indicative of the real afflictions women were suffering at the time. The show has a tendency to lean far more on the metaphor, using an illness more as a lens to see some broader social issue. The pilonidal cyst is not dangerous, but it serves as a metonymy for concerns of cleanliness, of shame, the plangent shame of midcentury medical care in Britain. By displaying the condition on the screen, the series helped draw attention to a hidden health condition.
How do you know it’s pilonidal cyst?
Symptoms of a pilonidal cyst Symptoms of an infected pilonidal cyst include :! An uninfected cyst is generally small and asymptomatic. But when an infection occurs, the symptoms can become quite severe. Symptoms There is pain, swelling, redness, and tenderness around the tailbone. People may also notice some drainage, typically pus or blood, which has an unpleasant odor. Fever and fatigue are also symptoms that can occur if the infection spreads. These are the symptoms that will bring patients to therapy.
How is pilonidal cyst diagnosed?
Diagnosis is usually straightforward. A cyst is the only thing a health care provider can see and feel in an examination of the area. There’s not some imaging or lab test you commonly need, as is the case with some other things. Infected pilonidal cysts, also red and swollen, are easier to diagnose. Your doctor may ask whether there’s been a relapse, because this ailment often comes back after treatment for pilonidal cyst.
How is a pilonidal cyst treated?
The treatment of pilonidal cysts is based on the severity. In those who have abscesses, warm compress, hygiene and topical agents can be used. But once the infection is in you, you need to drain it. A doctor might numb the area, make an incision and let it drain. It will bring you temporary relief but that cyst is going to return. If the cyst is sustained in the long term, or repeatedly reoccurs, you may even need surgery to remove it totally. The treatment of choice is usually surgical in order to avoid repeated infection.
Is pilonidal cyst surgery common?
Well, you did ask if recurring pilonidal cysts were a common reason for going under the knife. The cyst, along with any infected tissue around it, can be removed, so that no pockets of infection are left behind. Other methods surgeons can try are closing the wound with sutures or letting it heal open. There is no way to know the recovery time – but most people get permanent relief with the right care. And while the surgery is effective, some non-surgical treatments like therapy and pain medication don’t help — or help very much — with the pain.
What happens if pilonidal cysts are not treated?
A pilonidal cyst that you left alone is bad news. Chronic infection can lead to abscesses and sinus tracts — small tunnels under the skin that can be hard to treat. If patients need revisions, they can effect a patient’s “quality of life” too — often making it difficult to sit or be active without discomfort. If they escape into the bloodstream, Putnam says, they can cause a systemic infection known as sepsis. That’s why early treatment pilonidal cyst is crucial to attempt to prevent complications.
What Call the Midwife is showing us
Because when Call the Midwife introduces us to a pilonidal cyst, the show shines a spotlight on it. We don’t talk about it, is that it really?” and the fact is, it doesn’t have to be; there’s no shame in needing help and admitting it is a great first step. The episode tells us something about medicine’s progress and how so many of our health challenges are, in themselves, old. “Pilonidal cysts are a common occurrence today, and everyone has better options for their treatment now than in the time of Manhattan.”
Conclusion
Pilonidal cyst does not exactly sound like such a very big whoop, of course, but it must be because on Call the Midwife, which enjoys tackling topics with a knuckle-to-nose angle of attack, it’s often excruciating, it can be a deep well of embarrassment and when left untreated, it brings low life. “Knowing the symptoms, causes and treatments might prompt the patient to get care sooner.” Nowadays treatment is different, draining or excising depending on the patient. But we also know from history and contemporary medical practice that even minor health issues merit acknowledgment, care and compassion.
