In the current issue of the journal, I especially recommend two papers presenting patient cases.

One of them is a report on a patient presenting with a buttock mass which turned out to be the first symptom of a branching pilonidal cyst complicated by anal fistula. Pilonidal cyst is a common condition which takes various clinical forms ranging from minor lesions, characterised by limited symptoms, located at the top of the cleft of the buttocks, to extensive branching fistulas accompanied by severe inflammation. In cases involving cysts suggesting a different aetiology or contact with the anal canal and sphincter muscles, it is advisable to extend the preoperative diagnostic work-up by transrectal ultrasonography, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. In my own practice, I routinely perform transrectal ultrasonography in uncertain cases.