Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffAn anal fissure is a small tear in the lining of the anal canal. This type of tear may develop in adults from passing hard or large stools during bowel movements. Anal fissure is also common in infants between 6 and 24 months. Anal fissures are less likely to develop in older children.
An anal fissure may cause you to experience pain and bleeding. More than 90 percent heal without surgery, and you can use topical creams or suppositories to provide relief as they heal. Anal fissures that fail to heal may become chronic and cause considerable discomfort.
If you develop an anal fissure that doesn't heal, surgery may relieve your discomfort.
