An anal fissure is a cut or tear in the anus caused by the strained bowel movement, hard stools and chronic episodes of diarrhoea. Symptoms include rectal bleeding, anal itching, and painful bowel movements.
Anal fissures can be acute or chronic and the primary symptom is pain during bowel movement. The pain can be severe and may last from a few minutes to several hours after defecation. They affect men and women equally and both the young and the old. Anal fissures are diagnosed by visual inspection of the anus and anus canal.
Botox injections are also an effective source of fissure treatment. Anal fissures can be extremely painful therefore it is advisable to get a checkup done before they become harder to treat. Fissure surgery is suggested for acute and chronic fissure cases.
These fissures can be usually treated without surgery but in some cases, surgery becomes mandatory if fissure persists for a longer period and when conservative treatment doesn’t work. Fissure surgery is a day care procedure and patients are usually discharged the same day to resume normal living.
The fissure surgery aftercare practices advised by the doctors include: stool softener, change in diet with increased fluid intake and reducing tobacco and alcohol intake as they can increase the risk of infection post surgery.
There are two main types of surgical procedures used to remove anal fissure
- Fissurectomy – This involves cutting away the damaged skin around the fissure
- Sphincterotomy – This involves cutting the sphincter muscles around the anus, to release the tension and let the fissure heal.
Your doctor would advise you which one is right for you. Sphincterotomy surgery is found to be highly effective in treating fissures with a high success rate but it can result in incontinence, a common complication after the procedure. There is a slight risk of developing an infection after sphincterotomy which can cause a small abscess near the wound.
Additional Read – A Brief Guide On The Urinary Tract Stones
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