Publication:

A prospective interventional study on ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract in patients with fistula-in-ano-as a tertiary care centre

Background Fistula-in-ano is a very common condition encountered in proctology OPD. The treatment of fistula-in-ano is difficult due to potential risk of recurrence and fecal incontinence. Ligation of Intersphincteric Fistulous Tract is new modality of treatment for the condition. LIFT is a sphincter preserving surgery, aim of our study to evaluate the effectiveness of LIFT surgery.

Methods We did LIFT surgery in 35 cases of intersphincteric and transsphincteric types of fistula-in-ano during the period of December 2019 to July 2020. Standard investigation protocol was followed in all cases. Evaluation of effectiveness of procedure done in terms of anal incontinence, wound healing time, recurrence rate and wound infection rate.

Results 35 patients (23 men, 12 women) were included with mean age of 40 SD 10.38 years. Most of study population have Inter sphincteric fistula (62.9%), and 37.1% participants have trans sphincteric fistula. Healing time was 10-15 days (42.9%) and mean healing time is 17 SD 4.25 days. We didn’t see a single case of anal incontinence with LIFT in our study. 6 cases of recurrence were seen.

Conclusions Result from our study showed that LIFT surgery is effective modality and fulfilling the outcome of sphincter preservation.