Anal Fissure Treatment

Acute Anal Fissures are cuts in the anal canal that can cause severe pain in active adults, teenagers, and children. They cause severe pain with bowel movements and occasionally some minor rectal bleeding. Fissures are routinely misdiagnosed as painful external hemorrhoids due to the common presence of a tender and inflamed sentinel tag of skin that develops just outside the anal canal tear. Proctology specialists offer effective and long term relief with medical, procedural, & surgical treatment for severe and difficult to heal anal fissures.

Although minor rectal bleeding may be present, pain is a primary symptoms caused by anal fissures. The intensity of the pain often causes patients to develop fear of having bowel movements. This results in a feedback loop that results in chronic fissures and other proctology problems such as severe constipation and hemorrhoids, with worsening rectal bleeding. Chronic fissures can also cause pruritus ani. At times, the fissure can get infected and evolve into an anorectal abscess. This, in turn, can drain out to the perianal skin and form an anal fistula.

Therefore, timely and appropriate anal fissure treatment is important to prevent complications of the disease. This is particularly true if the symptoms from the anal fissure have been ongoing for more than a week to 10 days.

Our experienced proctologists offer this treatment in a comfort of our office. We initially treat fissures with specialized medications and dietary changes. When indicated for medically refractory chronic anal fissures, we offer chemodenervation via botulinum toxin injections which are well tolerated and 90% effective in treating these chronic medically refractory cases. In rare scenarios, we offers lateral internal sphincterotomy ( anal fissure surgery) for definitive cure and long-term relief. Both procedures can be performed safely in the office and patients tend to feel better immediately afterwards.

In children, teenagers, and young adults the primary objective is treating the anal fissure. Once the fissure has healed, we focus on dietary, behavioral, and biomechanical modifications to prevent recurrence of disease process and the development of other related proctology problems.