Anal Fissures - How Can They Be Treated?

Anal fissure are the small tears formed in the anal lining. They are also known as anal ulcers. An anal fissure causes a lot of pain and bleeding during your bowel movements. Usually a fissure heals automatically in a few days time. It can be treated with simple home remedies as well.

Causes:

1. You can suffer from an anal fissure if you pass hard and large stools. 

2. Also strained childbirth.

3. Suffering from violent spells of diarrhoea might get you an anal fissure. 

4. Chronic constipation may also be cause of a fissure. 

5. Other rare causes may be anal cancer, HIV, tuberculosis or herpes, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel disease etc.

Individuals of all age groups can suffer from anal fissures. It is not a very serious problem and heals on its own in a few weeks. Although it can heal itself, there are certain treatments which can help relieve the pain you get from an anal fissure.

Symptoms:
An anal fissure has quite a lot of symptoms for you to understand what you are suffering from:

1. There will be a very visible tear around the anal region. You will be able to spot the tear on the skin very easily.

2. A small lump of skin may form next to the tear.

3. When you will be undergoing your bowel movements, you will feel a very sharp pocking pain in the anal region.

4. You will find spots of blood on the stool passed.

5. You will also feel a burning or an itching sensation in the anal region, which may last for few minutes to whole day.

Treatment:
Although most fissures do not require treatment, there are a few remedies that will help cure them faster:

1. Stool softeners: You get certain medicines at the chemist, which are known for their stool softening functions. These stool softeners help to soften the hard stools and initiates smooth bowel movements.

2. Eat fibrous foods: Eat foods rich in fibre like fruits, whole grain cereals, raw vegetables, etc.

3. Take warm baths: fill a tub of warm water and sit in for 10 min after every motion. Don’t add any salt, Dettol, betadine any solution to it. 

4. Use ointment: Topical pain relievers to promote blood flow to the anal region and to relieve discomfort from the region respectively.

If even after the above remedies, the fissure problem persists, then it is time to think about surgery or BOTOX treatment for fissure. A visit to your proctologist is recommended now.