Anal Fissure

Symptoms

Most anal fissures cause:

• A sharp, stinging or burning pain during a bowel movement. Pain from a fissure may be quite severe. It can be brief or last for several hours after a bowel movement.
• Itching.
• Bleeding, often a small spot of bright red blood on toilet tissue. Tell your health professional if you have any bleeding with a bowel movement. Blood mixed with stool usually is a sign of some other condition, possibly inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or colon cancer.

An anal fissure can be a painless wound that won't heal and that bleeds intermittently but causes no other symptoms.

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Author:	Ralph Poore	Last Updated: June 16, 2006
Medical Review:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine C. Dale Mercer, MD, FRCSC, FACS - General Surgery
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