Evaluation of post-surgical complications of hidradenitis suppurativa lesions explored with presurgical ultra-high frequency ultrasound mapping

Objective: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the hair follicle. Its treatment often requires a surgical approach. The aim of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of post-surgical complications following a new standard of surgical management. This included presurgical lesion mapping by ultra-high frequency ultrasound (UHFUS) with a 70MHz probe. Postoperative management was based on the principles of HS-TIME (time, inflammation/infection, moisture, edges). Method: A single-centre, retrospective study was conducted by the Department of Dermatology of the University of Pisa. Patients with moderate and severe HS, refractory to previous medical and surgical therapies, were enrolled. All of the patients were treated with wide surgical excision of lesions, previously explored through a UHFUS evaluation with VEVO MD (Fujifilm VisualSonics, Inc., Canada) using a 48MHz and a 70MHz ultrasound probe. Following surgery, all patients were treated with secondary intention healing following the principles of HS-TIME. For each patient, we assessed the occurrence of post-surgical complications at follow-up visit six months after surgery. For each patient we assessed the occurrence of early post-surgical complications at every follow-up visit after surgery until complete wound healing. The occurrence of delayed complications was then assessed in all patients with an observation time after complete healing of >3 months (n=23). Results: A total of 26 patients were enrolled in the study. There were no reported cases of post-surgical bleeding or haematoma occurrence, while three (11.5%) patients developed minor surgical site infection. The average severity of pain decreased from a numerical rating scale of 5.3 immediately after surgery to 1.3 after four weeks. The average healing time was 33.3±16.8 days, and only five (19.2%) patients reported a complete wound healing time of >6 weeks. Focusing on delayed complications: 1/23 (4.3%) patient had hypertrophic scarring; 2/23 (8.7%) patients reported dysaesthesia; and 2/23 (8.7%) cases of clinical relapse were reported. No cases of limited mobility at the surgery site were registered. Conclusion: The findings of the study demonstrated the efficacy of a novel surgical protocol, including a preoperative ultrasound evaluation and appropriate postoperative wound management. Further prospective studies are needed to validate the observed results; however, we conclude that the low recurrence rates and post-surgical complications confirmed that our proposed protocol would represent an effective strategy for the management of patients with HS eligible for surgical therapy.