This article is from the book, The Doctors Book of Home Remedies , by The Editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books. To send a link and summary of this article to a friend, click here . The similarities between anal fissures and hemorrhoids are largely superficial.
Hemorrhoids are generally swollen veins.
In contrast, fissures are ulcers, or breaks in the skin, which just happen to occur in the same general area. Fissures are very much like those painful tears that sometimes develop in the corners of your mouth, says J. Byron Gathright, Jr., M.D., chairman of the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an associate professor of surgery at Tulane University. Both the oral and anal variety occur where skin meets delicate mucous membrane. In the anus, a common cause of such tears is the passing of a large, hard stool, says Dr. Gathright. They burn, they sting, they often bleed.