Comparative study of closed versus open lateral internal sphincterotomy in the management of chronic anal fissure

ABSTRACT

Background: Anal fissure is a painful tear in distal anal canal extending from just below the dentate line to anal verge. Patient presents with pain during or after defecation and passage of bright red blood per anus. Various studies investigating chronic anal fissures show a large variation in healing rates for different modalities. The present study was carried out to evaluate effectiveness of closed versus open lateral internal sphincterotomy in treatment of patients with chronic anal fissure.Methods: A prospective study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak. Group A and group B included 20 patients each with chronic anal fissure and managed by closed and open lateral internal sphincterotomy respectively and effectiveness was evaluated with regards to fissure healing, pain reduction, recurrence and incontinence after surgical treatment.Results: The mean pain scores on visual analogue scale at end of 1 week in group A and group B was not found to be statistically significant, whereas it was found to be statistically significant at 3 week and at 6 weeks. Delayed healing was seen in 1 patient of group B, whereas no patient in group A had delayed healing or absence of healing postoperatively.Conclusions:There was a significant difference between closed and open methods of lateral internal sphincterotomy in terms of relief in post-operative pain but as a whole both techniques did not show any statistically significant difference in terms of fissure healing, postoperative complications or recurrence at 3 months.