My story is a bit different - I didn’t have a traditional fissure, but I hope this can help some of you. I had a hemorrhoidectomy that never fully healed. The wound became infected and about 7 months later I had a fistulotomy to clean the wound (it’s unclear if I had a fistula but an MRI showed a very small one). Since then I’ve been mostly pain free but the same small area of the wound (about 0.5 cm) refused to heal. It had been over a year since the original surgery.
After trying just about everything I came across a product in the US called Active Skin Repair. The active ingredient is Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl). I was willing to try anything so gave this a try. They make baby and kid version so I figured it was safe. I used the Hydrogel version and applied it about 5 times per day.
After about 3 days I could no longer see any opening of the wound. It’s now been over a week and I continue to see progress. I finally feel confident that I am on a permanent path to healing. I believe this product is what put my healing over the edge, but it was supported by many other things I’ve been doing. Here is a list of what has been helpful and not.
Helpful (for me)
- Hypochlorous Acid, 5x/day (#1 biggest help)
- Nitroglycerine, 2x day (helped the worst pain but only to a point, never fully closed the wound)
- Anal massage, 1 finger, 10 min, 2x day with water based lube (prior to applying medication)
- 1 tbsp. olive oil with 8oz of water and lemon juice (for taste), first thing in the morning to keep stool soft
- 1 dose of Miralax 1x/day after dinner
- Diet: NO gluten, added sugar, dairy, red meat, or alcohol. Limit coffee to 1-2/day if you must (caffeine causes anal contraction/spasm which inhibits healing). Bone broths, lean meats, eggs, and other protein sources that promote tissue repair are good, and of course lots of vegetables for fiber.
- Supplements*: probiotics, digestive enzymes, gut repair/leaky gut blend, magnesium (citrate, glycinate, malate), MSM, L-arginine, L-glutamine, bone broth powder and/or collagen, wheatgrass powder
*Hard to tell how helpful these were, but may have supported healing and didn’t seem to hurt. I definitely recommend the probiotics. I used Ancient Nutrition Gut Restore.
Not Helpful (for me)
- Psyllium fiber: kept me regular but added bulk, which stretched the canal and kept the wound from closing. Olive oil and miralax were my best friends.
- Coconut oil: STUNG! Seemed to make things worse.
- Calmoseptine: recommended by my doctor; like a diaper rash ointment for adults, but caused irritation
- Flagyl ointment: prescribed by my doctor; helped with healing but caused irritation and seemed to leave skin tags (I didn’t have them before using)