INTRODUCTION: Chronic anal fissures are deep, benign and painful ulcers. The involved factors are local trauma, sphinter hypertonia and poor blood flow. Surgery is gold standard treatment, but it causes fecal incontinence. Medical non-surgical therapy gets transitory resting pressure reduction and cure of lesions, without muscular damage. METHODS: In order to evaluate the treatment of chronic anal fissures using topical isossorbide (ISO) 1%, a randomizated and double-blind study twas carried out in Coloproctology Section of Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS), Sergipe, Brazil, during one year. Twenty-four patients were evaluated: 14 in Group 1 - ISO cream, and 10 in Group 2 - placebo. Resting pressure profile, improvement of painful symptoms and degree of scaring of the fissure were evaluated. RESULTS: Ulcer was more prevalent in women, constipation was present in 58.3%. The evacuatory pain was less common in Group 2, but without statistical significance. After 60 days, the healing was equal in the both groups (50%). There was a small reduction of resting pressure means at the end of 30 and 60 days, without statistical significance. Healing patients presented more resting pressure reducing. CONCLUSION: ISO cream did not influence the manometric response standard; otherwise it offered clinical improvement in both groups, whose scarring index was similar.
Fissure in ano; Isosorbide
