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.