by Philber » 05 Oct 2010, 09:08
It is important to rely on the available medical information and accumulated knowledge when making health decisions, rather than using random anecdotal evidence which may or may not be supported by the facts.
For acute fissures, 80-90% will heal without surgery. For chronic fissures, 40% will heal without surgery. These numbers suggest that it is well worth trying conservative treatments before opting for surgery. This is the information that doctors use to prescribe non-surgical therapies such as diltiazem.
It is not surprising that this forum is mostly populated by people for whom conservative treatments have been unsuccessful. Those people are not healed, so they spend more time looking for information and alternatives. It is to be expected that forums such as this will be filled with people who are most adversely affected.
It would be a big mistake to take the stories that appear on this forum and conclude that non-surgical therapies are not effective. The stories on this forum, while compelling, are not a scientific sample and are not statistically representative of the population that suffers from anal fissures.