A prospective randomized trial of diltiazem and glyceryltrinitrate ointment in the treatment of chronic anal fissure

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to compare prospectively diltiazem with GTN ointment in the treatment of anal fissure. Patients and methods Of 43 outpatients with chronic anal fissure, 22 patients were randomized to topical diltiazem (2%) ointment and 21 patients to glyceryltrinitrate (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Colorectal Disease
Main Authors: Bielecki, K., Kolodziejczak, M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2003
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1463-1318.2003.00440.x
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1463-1318.2003.00440.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1463-1318.2003.00440.x
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Summary:Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to compare prospectively diltiazem with GTN ointment in the treatment of anal fissure. Patients and methods Of 43 outpatients with chronic anal fissure, 22 patients were randomized to topical diltiazem (2%) ointment and 21 patients to glyceryltrinitrate (GTN) (0.5%) ointment twice daily for 8 weeks. During the course of treatment each patient was seen three times. Side‐effects and healing were recorded. Results Healing occurred in 19 of 22 patients treated with diltiazem and 18 of 21 patients were cured with GTN ( P = 0.95). Those who were treated with nitroglycerin ointment developed headache and dizzness developed after GTN in 33.3% of cases while no patient had any side‐effects after diltiazem. Conclusions Diltiazem and glyceryltrinitrate (GTN) were equally effective in healing anal fissure but the former resulted in fewer side‐effects.