Newswise — You thought it was bad enough to have an abscess in an area you couldn’t talk about in public. How depressing to know that roughly half of individuals who have an abscess may develop an anal fistula and require further treatment for this! In the January issue of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, Dr. Sahnan and colleagues from the Fistula Research Unit at St. Mark’s Hospital and Academic Institute, Harrow, United Kingdom, report results of a large study evaluating an 11-year experience at their unit including nearly 2000 patients with perirectal abscess. One out of every 6 perirectal abscess patients went on to develop an anal fistula, most about 7 months after the abscess had occurred.
Women, patients less than 30 years old ,and patients with Crohn’s disease were at risk for subsequent fistula formation, whereas men and patients with diabetes were less likely to develop a fistula. According to Dr. Sahnan “patients with Crohn’s disease are twice as likely to develop a fistula as patients without Crohn’s disease. Identification of patients at risk may help us identify those who need closer follow-up or more testing.”
Citation: Sahnan K, Askari A, Adegbola SO, Warusavitarne J, Lung PFC, Hart A, Faiz O, Phillips RKS, Tozer P. Persistent Fistula After Anorectal Abscess Drainage: Local Experience of 11 Years. Dis Colon Rectum. 2019 Mar;62(3):327-332.
For a copy of the publication, please contact Managing Editor of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum Margaret Abby at [email protected]
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