Open vs. Closed Sphincterotomy for Surgical Treatment of Anal Fissures

There is currently no specific evidence regarding the exact etiology of anal fissures. However, various management options were reported and validated among the relevant research. Lateral internal sphincterotomy has been validated among relevant investigations in the literature as a valid modality for managing patients with chronic anal fissures. In the present literature review, we formulated evidence based on these studies to compare open and closed techniques of this surgery according to the reported outcomes. However, evidence regarding the superiority of either of the techniques over the other is not consistent among these investigations. For instance, some studies reported that closed sphincterotomy is more favorable than the open approach and should be considered the treatment choice for chronic anal fissures. This is because the technique is associated with less frequent rates of complications, less expensive, safe, and effective. On the other hand, many other relevant studies also demonstrated that the reported outcomes for the two modalities exhibited non-significant differences. Therefore, we suggest that researchers should furtherly conduct additional investigations before drawing any conclusions in this field.