J Korean Soc Coloproctol.  1997 Mar;13(1):97-100.

The Treatment Of Fistula-in-ano in Infants

• Cho HJ
• Kim TK
• Kim DS
• Lee DH
• Kang YS

Abstract

The authors performed a retrospective review to find out optimal treatment plan in infantile fistula-in-ano. There were seventy-one patients in a 2-year period. All were male and other clinical characteristics were similar to previous reports. The onset in 60 patients(97%) of the cases was in the first 1 year of alee, especially in the first 3 months(52%). We investigated patterns of disease progression in multiple-lesion cases(19cases 29%). In 5 out of 9 cases of which we could identify the patterns, new lesion developed from 1 month to 4 months after index lesion. Fifty Patients underwent fistulotomy under principle of early surgical intervention, No recurrence was found except 2cases who needed second operation during 30 months of median follow-up(23~48 months). In 21 patients whose parents did not want operation, we performed simple drainage and followed-up. Six out of 12 patients who could be communicable had no fistula-related symptoms from 20 months to 31 months. This suggests that simple drainage has therapeutic effect in some portion of infantile abscess. We conclude that simple drainage should be initial treatment of choice in infantile perianal abscess. We suggest that definite operation for recurrent abscess and fistula with relatively mild symptoms should be delayed until 1-year of age because of interval ccurrence of multiple lesions and therapeutic effect of simple drainage.

Keyword

Anal Fistula; Child

MeSH Terms

Abscess
Child
Disease Progression
Drainage
Fistula
Humans
Infant*
Male
Parents
Rectal Fistula
Recurrence
Retrospective Studies