Yes, I just watched the link. Just curious as to what your specific concerns are. I researched anal dilation online and never saw anything that made me think it was a better choice than LIS
I was just curious as to why someone may choose it over LIS? From what I've read and my experience incontinence to flatus isn't a long term problem after the initial post-op period with LIS. I understand you having concerns for an infection though. I was terribly worried about that myself when I had my LIS.
I found this on Medicinenet.com and this is what I commonly came up with while searching for info. We had a guy in here who had anal dilation and the last I heard he was doing great. He wasn't from the US though. I didn't realize there were CRS's in the US who still do this procedure?!
Anal surgical stretch. Several surgeons have described procedures that stretch and tear the anal sphincters for the treatment of anal fissures. Though anal stretching often is successful in alleviating pain and healing the fissure, it is a traumatic, uncontrolled disruption of the sphincter. Ultrasonograms of the anal sphincters following stretching demonstrate trauma that extends beyond the desired area. Because only 72% of fissures heal and there is a 20% incidence of incontinence of stool, stretching has fallen out of favor.
Medscape.com
Sphincter dilatation
This procedure is a controlled anal stretch or dilatation under general anesthetic. This is performed because one of the causative factors for anal fissure is thought to be a tight internal anal sphincter; stretching it helps to correct the underlying abnormality, thus allowing the fissure to heal. The number of fingers used and the amount of time the stretch is applied varies among surgeons. While the sphincter stretch does provide symptomatic relief from the anal fissure, it is rarely performed today, because of the high complication rate. Impaired continence is observed in 12-27% of patients because of the uncontrolled stretching and subsequent tearing of the internal and external sphincter.