Possibilities of medical relaxation of the internal anal sphincter for anal fissures

INTRODUCTION: up to the present time, both open and closed lateral internal sphincterotomy (LIS) are considered by surgeons as fully comparable methods for eliminating the spasm of the internal sphincter in patients with chronic anal fissure. However, each method has a number of advantages and disadvantages. AIM: determination of an effective and safe method of lateral subcutaneous sphincterotomy.MATERIALS AND METHODS: a systematic overview and meta-analysis of studies, which compare the results of treatment after an open and closed lateral sphincterotomy was performed. The following has been evaluated: the incidence of fissure epithelialization, the postoperative morbidity, the recurrence rate, the incidence of anal incontinence (AI). Statistical processing has been carried out in the Review Manager 5.3 program.RESULTS: the meta-analysis included 9 studies with the results of treatment of 452 patients after an open lateral sphincterotomy and 443 after a closed one. The groups were comparable in frequency of epithelialization of fissures (OR = 0.87; CI = 0.30; 2.53; p = 0.8), in terms of the number of postoperative complications (OR = 0.52; CI = 0.15; 1.76; p = 0.29), as well as the number of relapses of the disease (OR = 0.5; CI = 0.19; 1.31; p = 0.16). At the same time, the implementation of an open lateral sphincterotomy leads to the development of AI 2.05 times more often than the closed method (OR = 2.05; CI = 1.01; 4.16; p = 0.05).CONCLUSION: during the treatment of the chronic anal fissure, in order to eliminate the spasm of the internal sphincter, it is advisable to use a closed method, in which the chance of AI is 2.05 times lower.

Open or closed sphincterotomy for treatment of the chronic anal fissure? (systematic review and meta-analysis)

Goloktionov,

Ponomarenko,

Sagidova

et al. 2023

Early outcomes of chronic anal fissure treatment using the lateral internal sphincterotomy method without excision (randomized trial NCT05117697)

Goloktionov,

Titov,

Ponomarenko

et al. 2023

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: improvement of the treatment of chronic anal fissure results.PATIENTS AND METHODS: the study included 70 patients randomized by random number generation into 2 groups: 30 patients underwent lateral internal sphincterotomy (main group, LIS), and 40 patients underwent LIS in combination with the excision of the fissure (EF) (control group, LIS + EF).RESULTS: the pain intensity both after stool and during the daytime in the main group (LIS) has been significantly lower than in the control group (LIS + EF) (p < 0.05). The median duration of the patients’ temporary disability in the LIS group was 6 (4; 9) days, in the LIS + EF group — 17 (9; 23.5) days (p = 0.04). On day 15, the defect has epithelialized in 12/30 (40%) patients of the main group (LIS) and none (0/40) in the control group (LIS + EF) (p = 0.00001), on day 30 — in 22/30 (73.3%) and 2/40 (5%) (p = 0.00001), on day 45 — in 26/30 (87%) and 20/40 (50%) (p = 0.002), and on day 60 — in 28/30 (93.3%) and 38/40 (95%) (p = 1.0), respectively. On the day 30 after surgery, 3/30 (10%) patients of the main group and 15/40 (37.5%) of the control group had complaints regarding passing gas (p = 0.01), on day 60 — anal sphincter insufficiency (ASI) persisted in 1/30 (3%) patients in the LIS group and in 3/40 (7.5%) patients in the LIS + EF group (p = 0.63). Excision of the fissure in 5.4 (1.4–20.9) times increases the chance of developing ASI on day 30 of the postoperative period (p = 0.015) and 52 (10.2; 268.3) times increases the chance of non-healing of the defect during this period (p = 0.000002) and 6.5 (1.9; 22) times on the day 45 (p = 0.003), in comparison with the LIS only.CONCLUSION: refusal to excise the anal fissure during its surgical treatment and perform the lateral internal sphincterotomy only can reduce the intensity of postoperative pain syndrome, the rate of postoperative complications and reduce the time of epithelialization of the anoderm defect.

Effectiveness of 0.3 % nifedipine gel combined with 2.0 % lidocaine and BTA 80 U in treatment of chronic anal fissure. Pilot randomized study. Preliminary results

Zharkov,

Goloktionov,

Sagidova

et al. 2024

AIM: to improve the results of chronic anal fissure treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: the study included 22 patients randomized by random numbers generation method into 2 groups. Eleven patients were included in main group and were treated with 0.3 % nifedipine + 2.0 % lidocaine gel, 11 patients of the control group received injections of botulinum toxin A into the internal anal sphincter at a dose of 80 U (BTA 80). RESULTS: by day 30, there was a decrease of maximal resting pressure in anal canal (MRPAC) in both the main and control groups [p = 0.015 and p = 0.004, respectively] and the average resting pressure in anal canal (ARPAC) [p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, respectively]. There was no difference between the groups in pain severity both after stool and during the day (p = 0.5 and p = 0.6, respectively). On day 60, the defect was epithelized in 6/11 (54.6 %) patients of the study group and in 9/11 (81.8 %) patients of the BTA 80 group [p = 0.36], respectively. The reason of treatment failure in 4/11 (36.4 %) patients of the main group and 2/11 (18.2 %) patients of the control group was a preserved internal sphincter spasm. It was found that these patients used a lower amount of the drug product — 2.2 (1.8; 2.5) mg/day compared to 2.4 (1.9; 2.7) mg/day in other patients. On the day 30 after surgical treatment, complaints about gas incontinence were registered in 1/11 (9.1 %) patients of the main group and 1/11 (9.1 %) patients of the control group [p = 1]. Such a complication as external hemorrhoid thrombosis occurred only in 1/11 (9.1 %) patients in the BTA 80 group [p = 0.87]. CONCLUSION: the study results show that gel containing 0.3 % nifedipine and 2 % lidocaine produces an effect on the tone of the internal sphincter comparable to BTA. However, the lack of accurate dosage of the drug product and/or low patient compliance reduce the effectiveness of treatment and make the use of BTA preferable for medical relaxation of the internal sphincter.