Healing a Chronic Anal Fissure

Here is my advice to anyone who needs help. I can thoroughly recommend Botox treatment. I've had a fissure twice after having a failed sphicterotomy which left me leaking. Wish I had had the Botox first. I use Coloplast Comfeel barrier cream after every bowel movement and use wetted toilet paper to wipe as dry toilet paper is too harsh when used. If you can use a toilet near to a tap take single sheet and wet only half of it. Fold the dry half on top of the wet half and wipe quickly to avoid the toilet paper disintegrating. Try anusol suppositories too. Also, keep your stools soft by drinking lots of water and eat fresh fruit and veg, avoiding spicy food and limit the amount of meat and other constipating foods (Google that) and stay on the toilet long enough to make sure your bowels are fully empty to avoid going too often as far as possible. I get the barrier cream (4 tubes at a time) and anusol (90 suppositories at a time) on prescription in the UK. DO NOT have a sphicterotomy until you've had Botox and only as a last resort and my consultant has told me never to have anal flap surgery. Good luck and get well.

i saw a consultant privately at Spire and had the sphincterotomy done on the nhs in Cardiff at the university hospital of wales to attempt to cure a fissure i'd had for several months. It didn't work and i had botox a few months with a different nhs consultant who i still see annually after which it did heal it. Unfortunately i had another fissure and a fistula in the same part of my anus which both healed after a second lot of botox. I havent had one again yet but im very careful to keep my bowel movements soft, myself clean and use anusol and barrier cream after every bowel movement plus i clean up again an hour or so after and reapply barrier cream. Hope you get relief soon.

No. the fistula was part of the original fissure issue. Dont worry about everything. All will be well in the end and your life will be fine. Despite all my issues i have a happy life and you will too! Just trust in those who have recommended botox. It really does work!

Thank you mike. All the best yo you too 

hi everyone,

i found this post so useful. i used sudocrem and it was great. ive had two fissures, luckily the GTN cream worked for me but how it avoid them reocurring is by drinking lots of water, try eat a lot of fruit and if i ever feel like i need to then il have some lactulose to soften the stool. i also got into a routine of going twice a day (morning and night) so that i can avoid toilet roll and just shower straight after. try avoid rubbing the area, sucks having a sore as$!

Hi... I got a fissure in April and suffered for 5wks before seeing a surgeon who prescribed GTN cream... South Africa doesn't sell this cream but something similar (compounded mixture of isosorbide nitrate 30mg in 30g soft paraffin) I've been using it now for 5wks together with Movicol in the morning and normacol plus after lunch. It is a balancing act to try and get the correct stool consistency with these. I went from pajn free stool to waking up 1 morning with a hard stool that caused pain and then was followed by diarrhea which left me with more pain. Its been 3mths from start to now. I found that pooping in a squat position helps alot as it ensure the pass of stool is in a straight line as opposed to a constricted passage when u use a conventional toilet method. Use a stool to elevate your feet when u use the toilet. Theres good videos of how to do this on YouTube. Ice packs have helped me more with inflammation after a stool that sitz baths... Sitz baths eventually caused my skin to peel on the inner thigh and a few closer areas. I should mention that I am on chemotherapy for breast cancer so thats contributing to poor wound healing as well. As if dealing with cancer isn't enough. It was the constipation from chemo I think that caused the fissure. I am concerned that my bowel is going to get dependent on laxatives and this stresses me out seriously. Lazy bowel syndrome is a disaster in its own. When im done using the GTN ointment I plan on starting the sudocrem. I dont think i can use them together as sudocrem is a barrier cream and might interfere with the absorption of the GTN. This is the worst thing to experience and at times I forget about the cancer totally and find myself paranoid about the fissure. All the comments here have been so helpful. I have renewed hope that this will heal eventually.