Ah Dewlilly,
Thanks - that makes sense to me now. I can see now why he believes the tract may be longer - my pin hole was just a couple of cm's away from my original abscess site, which I think, made things a lot simpler for me.
Yes the seton is generally a cord made from silk, rubber, which is passed through the fistula tract so that the cord creates a big loop that joins up outside the fistula. This makes a path for the fistula to drain continuously while it is healing, rather than allowing the exterior of the wound to close over and the yucky pus stuff to remain trapped inside the wound. Setons can be tied tightly or loosely. Normally a loose seton might be tied loosely to provide pain & discomfort relief or as temporary measure before a fistulotomy can be performed.
In some types of fistulae, a seton may be tied with more tension and tightened periodically. This is known as a "cutting seton" and the seton loop will slowly cut through tissue inside the loop while scarring behind the loop, essentially "pulling out" the fistula without surgery.
It really depends upon the outcome of the EUA for them to determine what type of seton you might need (and indeed if you need one at all) Most posters here tend to get the seton with a Fistulomy at the end of it and this can range from a couple of months to a few in between stages - it really depends on your case.
Since I had no internal sphincter interaction, my CRS was able to cut quite liberally when excising the wound because it was very superficial (close to the surface) and the seton was not required.
The pinhole was literally cut out and the wound left to heal from the bottom upwards (to fill in the hole that was left after surgery!) It looked a deep red groove but healed and filled in fully within 6 weeks. The excision site bled a little a day or two after the op but nothing major and then once the pus had drained through, it healed well.
No, it was confirmed that I have no Chrons or UC - I was just one of those unfortunate people that got an abscess, which developed into a fistula! (It's a 50/ 50 chance) and that was 3 months or so after getting an anal fissure. (and that had no connection either!) I just had a run of real bad bottom luck for a while!
Unfortunately whilst the fistula is open like yours is, it will continue to be pretty disgusting! I used to hate that pussing but surgery will sort it out and it is the only way too and once better, so many people are so much happier they don't have to live with all that stuff on a daily basis.
You will only really know what lies ahead once you have your surgery, but stay strong and trust that you will heal OK from this :)