Early results of a rotational flap to treat chronic anal fissures

Background: Treatment of anal fissures has changed dramatically in the past decade. Only a few fail to respond to medical therapy. Sphincterotomy and anal dilatation have fallen out of favour due to the risk of incontinence. Island flaps have been proposed to address this, but 60-70% of flap donor sites break down with complications. We proposed that using a rotational flap would overcome this problem. Methods: Twenty-one patients (14 women,7 men) with chronic anal fissures were treated with rotation flap from perianal skin. The median age was 43 (range 21-76) years. All patients had failed chemical sphincterotomy and showed no signs of improvement following at least a 3-month course of topical GTN 0.2% ointment. Results: The median hospital stay was 2 days. Seventeen patients had complete resolution of symptoms. Only one patient continued to have severe pain. Two developed a recurrent fissure. One patient had a combined fistula-fissure complex at diagnosis and suffered from a breakdown of the flap and donor site. Another patient had had haemorrhoidectomy and an advancement flap in the past. He developed problems with the donor site, which was successfully managed conservatively. One patient had persistent mild pain after surgery, but the cause could not be found. None of the patients suffered continence defects after surgery. Conclusion: Use of a rotational flap is a simple, safe and successful treatment for anal fissures. Donor site problems are minimised using this approach. It should be a treatment of choice when surgery is required for chronic anal fissures, particularly in patients in whom there is a risk of incontinence. © Springer-Verlag 2004

Early Results of a Rotation Flap to Treat Chronic Anal Fissures

Treatment of anal fissures has changed dramatically in the past decade. This is primarily due to a better understanding of its pathophysiology and the implications of the various available options. Only a few anal fissures fail to respond to medical therapy. Sphincterotomy and anal dilatation have fallen out of favour due to the risk of incontinence. Island flaps have been proposed to address this, but 60-70% of the flap donor sites break down with complications. We propose using a rotation flap to overcome this problem. Methods: A local rotation flap from perianal skin was used to fill the fissure defect in 14 patients who were followed up for a period of 6 months to determine fissure healing and incidence of donor site breakdown. Results: Twelve patients had complete resolution of their symptoms. Of two patients who developed fissure recurrence, one also had dehiscence of the donor site. There were no donor site complications in the remaining patients. No patient suffered continence defects as a result of the surgery. Conclusion: Rotation flap is a simple, safe and appropriate modality for treating chronic anal fissures. Donor site problems are avoided using this approach. It should be the treatment of choice, particularly in patients who are at risk of incontinence