A drug-laden elastomer for surgical treatment of anal fistula.

Anal fistula is a common surgical problem with high incidence and causes suffering to patients. The management of high and complex anal fistula is challenging. The purpose of this work is to develop drug-laden elastomer not only to act as seton in the surgical management of anal fistula but also provide painkilling effect during the treatment. Elastic silicone bands were fabricated with different concentrations of lidocaine, with different in vitro drug release profiles. Muscle cutting experiment showed that the drug-laden elastic silicone bands were as effective as the surgical rubber bands in cutting function. Preliminary clinical trial indicated that the drug-laden silicone bands can be used as setons with analgesic effect in the treatment of anal fistula. The findings showed that the drug-laden elastic silicone bands are potentially useful as seton for surgical treatment of anal fistula.