Preauricular sinus: When to operate?

Purpose: Experiences with preauricular sinus (PAS) excision in pediatric age group. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of 110 patients who underwent PAS excision was done. A total of 112 excisions (63 left, 49 right) were performed by standard surgical technique. All the patients were operated upon in an infection-free period under general anesthesia. Results: A total of 32 excisions had bad surgical results in the form of bad scar or recurrence, out of which 28 had history of symptomatic sinus infection preoperatively. Conclusions: Surgical excision of PAS should be done in quiescent phase; once infected, it becomes very difficult to eradicate the infection and also the chances of bad surgical results (bad scar or recurrence) increase manifold.