Treatment of anal fissure by lateral subcutaneous sphincterotomy should be under general anaesthesia

✍ Scribed by M. R. B. Keighley; F. Greca; E. Nevah; M. Hares; J. Alexander-Williams

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 204 KB
• Volume: 68
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1323
• DOI: 10.1002/bjs.1800680611

✦ Synopsis

Summary

Seventy-one consecutive patients with acute anal fissure were randomly allocated to treatment by lateral subcutaneous sphincterotomy under either local anaesthesia (n=34) or general anaesthesia (n=37). Four months after treatment there were 18 patients with a recurrent or persistent anal fissure, 17 had had local anaesthesia (50 per cent) and only one had a recurrent fissure after general anaesthesia (3 per cent). These results indicate that if lateral subcutaneous sphincterotomy is used for treatment of anal fissure the operation should be performed under a general anaesthetic.