When the area from which feces are thrown out from the body gets blocked it give rise to the formation of abscess (infected cavity) and such an abscess will form anal fistula. Anal fistulas are small abscess of infection inside the anus which may give rise to pain and swelling around the anus. Very often, the fistulas are formed from anal abscess but sometimes it can also occur due to sexually transmitted disease and infectious disorder like tuberculosis.
The symptoms of anal fistula are bleeding, anal abscess pain with swelling, foul smelling pus discharge and occasional fever with chills. Anal fistula can be diagnosed by physical examination of anus and also by testing procedure. If needed, your doctor will ask you to do MRI scan of the anus for clearly defining the fistula tract. In case of detection of fistula, further testing would be done for Crohn’s disease in the intestine. Generally fistulas are seen on people with Crohn syndrome.
Surgery is done for severe case of anal fistula, if it becomes unmanageable. Fistulotomy is the procedure of removing fistulas from the anus during which the muscular area are opened, thus converting the abscess into groove. This facilitates the healing process quickly. In complicated cases of anal fistula, a seton is replaced in the area which should be kept for minimum 6 weeks and can be removed thereafter. There may be pain and little discomfort after surgery and you can take pain killer medicines for complete healing and recovery.
What Is A Fistula?
Anal fistula is a small pus-filled cavity in and around the anus area. Very often it is caused by infection of the internal glands and sometimes it can be caused by bacteria. Anal fistula is also known as anal abscess. In rare cases fecal particles (hardened) can clog together to block the anal cavity forming abscess inside the anal canal or cavity.
More than half of the cases diagnosed with anal fistula would already have abscess. Anal fistula can also occur without an abscess and is found near the skin of the buttocks close to the opening through which stool is pushed out. Anal fistula occurs in the form of small channel between the skin of the anus and end of the opening. It can cause leakage of blood in the stools and can be painful. It can occur in the postoperative cases for which rectal surgery is performed. Anal fistula can be treated only by surgery.
Anal Fistula Types
- Anal fistulas are classified into many types based on its location with respect to the surrounding structures of the anus. Some of them include peri-anal, intersphicteric fistula and ischio-anal fistula. In most of the cases perianal fistulas are present.
- Anal fistulas can also be categorized with respect to its place or occurrence connected to anal sphincter region like superficial fistula, trans-sphicteric fistula, extra sphincteric fistula and inter sphincteric fistula.
Anal Fistula Symptoms
Presence of anal fistula can cause pain while passing stool, swelling around the area of rectum and scarring of skin surrounding the anus. For some people it can cause bloody leakage with stool and irritation and burning pain while urinating. Foul smelling discharge can occur from the anus due to infection. In severe cases fever and body pain may develop as additional symptom of abscess. Very often they occur in patients with preexisting complaints of anal abscess.
Causes Of Anal Fistula :
Several glands are preset inside the anus and when any one of them gets infected it may lead to collection of pus, called as abscess. People with weakened immunity are at risk of getting an abscess and they are often treated with antibiotics. In most of the cases anal abscess gets healed but the doctor will have to drain the pus from the abscess. In some cases, anal abscess get burst out before it is drained fully causing anal fistula.