What is an anal fistula?

  The full name of anal fistula should be anorectal fistula, also known as anal leakage in Chinese medicine, is the soft tissue around the anorectum infected with septic ulceration or artificially cut open after the formation of the tube, this tube began as one, with the development of the disease, there can be more than one. The inner mouth of the canal is the entrance of the infection, 90% above the anal sinus located about 4 cm from the anal opening at the dentate line, and the outer mouth of the canal is the ulcerated mouth or surgical incision, mostly outside the anus, but also inside the anus or rectal wall.  Anal fistula is a common disease of the anus, accounting for about 10% of anal morbidity in China, with young adults aged 20-40 years old, infants and children are not uncommon. The impact on the human body is repeated perianal infection, swelling and pain, perianal tissue scarring, a few long-standing anal fistulas, more than 10 years, have a certain tendency to malignant change.  Like paranal abscesses, anal fistulas differ from infections in other parts of the body in that they occur near the anorectum and have a fixed source of infection in the anal or rectal cavity, the internal orifice, and the lesion is located in the anal sphincter, whose diastole and contraction affects the drainage of pus. Therefore, there is no possibility of self-healing of anal fistula and paranal abscess once they occur, regardless of their severity, and medication will only alleviate the symptoms, and the only way to achieve clinical cure is through surgical treatment. There have been many attempts to treat fistulas and perianal abscesses with methods other than surgery, but they have all ended in failure, to say the least, and so far no non-surgical methods have been found to cure them.  The purpose of fistula surgery is to cut open the fistula, remove the internal opening, completely eliminate the source of infection, allow the fistula to drain freely, and allow new granulation tissue to grow upward from the bottom of the wound and gradually fill in the wound.