title: Quality of life assessment in patients with chronic anal fissure after lateral internal sphincterotomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to compare quality of life of patients with chronic anal fissure before and after open lateral internal sphincterotomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective study was undertaken of 108 consecutive patients with a history of chronic anal fissure who underwent lateral internal sphincterotomy. Quality of life was measured before and 6 months after operation with the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Quality of life improved significantly in six of the eight scales of the SF-36 questionnaire: physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, energy, social functioning and mental health. There were no significant differences between the 70 patients who had no change in continence after operation and the 38 patients with continence disturbances after sphincterotomy. However, there were significant improvements in four scales in patients without changes in continence compared with improvements in only two scales in those with continence disturbances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with chronic anal fissure showed an improvement in quality of life 6 months after internal lateral sphincterotomy. Patients with postoperative continence disturbances showed improvement in fewer scales of the SF-36 questionnaire than those without changes in continence.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Coloproctology, Department of Surgery, Hospital Virgen del Camino, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marzo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Armendariz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Miguel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001003:Anal Canal / Q000601:surgery*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005401:Fissure in Ano / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012008:Recurrence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires