Characteristics of Crohn's anal fistula

Crohn's disease is an intestinal disease of unknown cause. It can occur in any part of the intestine. Suffering from this disease is very harmful to your health and requires active treatment. If Crohn's disease is not treated in time, it will cause anal fistula. If the physical symptoms are more obvious, surgical treatment should be performed as soon as possible, but you should avoid eating spicy and irritating foods.

What are the characteristics of Crohn's anal fistula?

The clinical manifestations of Crohn's disease (CD) are diverse and ever-changing. Most patients have an insidious onset of disease, with unclear initial symptoms, which may delay diagnosis and treatment; a few patients have an acute onset and are easily misdiagnosed as acute appendicitis, intestinal obstruction, etc. The course of the disease varies in length. Some people recover after onset and never relapse; others can last for several years or even decades. Symptoms persist and do not heal for a long time or relapse and remission occur alternately. As the inflammatory lesions progress, it eventually leads to intestinal fibrosis, intestinal stenosis, obstruction, or penetration of the intestinal wall to form fistulas or invasion of nearby organs and tissues.

Clinically, it can be divided into early stage (symptoms are mostly not obvious, which is one of the important reasons why the diagnosis of this disease is difficult), active stage (symptoms are obvious), remission stage (symptoms improve after effective treatment) or chronic active stage (mostly due to drug dependence or resistance, and improper treatment). Pathologically, it can be divided into early stage, active stage, chronic inflammatory stage or remission stage. The clinical manifestations of this disease vary greatly depending on the stage. There are no symptoms in the early stage, obvious symptoms in the active stage, and mild symptoms in the remission stage.

Crohn's anal fistula manifests as skin tags, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, ulcers, anal fistulas, rectovaginal fistulas, perianal abscesses, anorectal stenosis and malignant tumors. Among them, anal fistulas have the highest incidence rate. Along with intestinal lesions, perianal symptoms include: repeated pus discharge from the anus, prolonged non-healing, itching of the skin around the anus; dysfunction in controlling bowel movements and flatulence; the skin at the outer opening of the anal fistula may be dark red or dark purple, with high surface temperature and obvious pain when touched; a small amount of yellow purulent secretions can be seen on the surface, and a foul odor can be smelled; the skin around the anus undergoes wet fistula-like changes.