Patient question::Twenty-one days after surgery for a high complex anal fistula, the doctor said that the outside of the wound is growing faster and the inside is growing slower, what should I do? Doctor: It takes about 4 weeks for the wound to heal after anal surgery. The first week belongs to the inflammatory reaction period, mainly manifested as anal pain, swelling, bowel irregularities, bleeding, etc.; in the second week, the ligature or rubber band comes off, and the necrotic and corrupt tissue of the wound falls off; in the third week, the new tissue of the wound starts to grow, and the patient will be discharged home. After discharge from the hospital, the patient must still take a sitz bath every day after having a bowel movement, insert a plug into the anus and apply some ointment, and go to the hospital twice a week to see the doctor for a change of medication. To avoid this, the patient should slide his index finger along the base of the wound after inserting the pessary (cream) to prevent the two sides of the wound from sticking together. When you go to the hospital to change the medication, the doctor should do a finger check each time, both to check the growth of the trauma inside the anus, and also to dilate the anus to prevent poor drainage and false healing of the trauma. How can the trauma inside grow slowly and outside grow quickly after anal surgery? This is a problem encountered in the recovery of deeper surgical incisions. The solution: every day when changing the medicine, use oil gauze stuffed in the base of the anal fistula wound, inside the anus stuffed loosely, outside the plug tighter, so that the outside of the wound will grow slowly. In general, the external wound exposed to air grows faster, while the internal wound inside the body cavity is relatively anoxic environment, which of course grows slower. This prompts the anorectal surgeon to try to make a small incision at the bottom (inside), so that the wound healing will be synchronized inside and outside the anus.