Abstract
The symptoms most frequently associated with an anal fistula include suppuration, bleeding, and/or pain, which are often preceded by the drainage of a perianal abscess and seton placement. All can severely affect patient’s quality of life (QoL). Patients with anal fistula have a reduced QoL, which is worse with recurrent disease, secondary extensions, and urgency. Setons should be placed loosely and should be comfortable. Their main goal is to relieve symptoms, prevent perianal sepsis, and to condition the fistula for reparative surgery. QoL is improved and continence is not impaired with a seton. Patients undergoing fistula surgery have only a 50–70% chance of cure. They should be counseled appropriately and warned that multiple interventions may be necessary. Fortunately, major symptoms such as pain and discharge improve and the risk of incontinence following fistula surgery is low. Patients can expect an improvement in symptom-specific QoL. Core outcome sets and specific validated QoL questionnaires should be used in the future to compare outcomes.
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Hahnloser, D. (2021). Quality of Life Following Anal Fistula Treatment. In: Ratto, C., Parello, A., Litta, F., De Simone, V., Campennì, P. (eds) Anal Fistula and Abscess. Coloproctology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30902-2_33-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30902-2_33-1
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