ANAL FISSURES; REGIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, SYMPTOMATIC PRESENTATION, INTERVAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE

Abstract

Objective: Anal fissures epidemiology, proportion of anterior and posterior location, gender based difference in location, risk factors and its association with anal fissure location. Moreover, to quantify quality of life and report average symptomatic presentation interval.

Material and Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted in Department of Surgery and Department of OBS&GYN of Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, KPK. Nonprobability Consecutive sampling of total of 100 patients were sampled. 100 normal individuals from general population were separately sampled with SF-12 for the purpose of comparison of quality of life. IBM SPSS 23 was used as a tool to process data and run different tests.

Results: 55% were male and 45% were female. Age range of was 18-65 with mean age of 32.60 years (SD±11.69). Of total anal fissures patients, 84% had posterior anal fissures and 16% had anterior anal fissures. 38% reported history of constipation, 26% had diarrhea, 18% had history of anal or perianal surgery, and 15% attributed their disease to the vaginal deliveries. The mean symptomatic presentation interval was 19.64 days (SD±16.65). The mean score of SF-12 in patients was 26.16 (SD of 5.22) compared to 39.03 in general population.

Conclusion: Anal fissures commonly occur in posterior midline location equally in both genders and risk factors does not significantly affect the location of the anal fissure. Anal fissures badly affect quality of life and SF-12 may be used as an assessment tool to quantify quality of life in these patients.