Treatment of Complex Fistula-in-Ano With a Nitinol Proctology Clip

The treatment of complex anocutaneous fistulas remains a major therapeutic challenge balancing the risk of incontinence against the chance of permanent closure.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a nitinol proctology clip for closure of complex anocutaneous fistulas.

This is a single-center cohort study with retrospective analysis of all of the treated patients.

Data were obtained from patient records and MRI reports, as well as follow-up telephone calls and clinical follow-up with endoanal ultrasonography.

All of the patients were treated for high transsphincteric and suprasphincteric anocutaneous fistulas at the Digestive Disease Center, Bispebjerg Hospital, between May 2013 and February 2015.

All of the patients were treated with the nitinol proctology clip.

Primary outcome was fistula healing after proctology clip placement, as evaluated through clinical examination, endoanal ultrasonography, and MRI.

The fistula healing rate 1 year after the clip procedure was 54.3% (19 of 35 included patients). At the end of follow-up, 17 (49%) of 35 patients had persistent closure of the fistula tracks. No impairment of continence function was observed. Treatment outcome was not found to be statistically associated with any clinicopathological characteristics.

The study is limited by its retrospective and nonrandomized design. Selection bias may have occurred, because treatment options other than the clip were available during the study period. The small number of patients means that there is a nonnegligible risk of type II error in the conclusion, and the follow-up may be too short to have detected all of the failures.

Healing rates were comparable with those of other noninvasive, sphincter-sparing techniques for high-complex anocutaneous fistulas, with no risk of incontinence. Predictive parameters for fistula healing using this technique remain uncertain. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A347.