Fistula-in-ano is a benign anorectal disease which always poses a big dilemma to the surgeons because of their significant recurrent rate following surgery. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 42 patients undergoing core out fistulectomy in the Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia were included in this study. Demographic data of patients were assessed. Endoanal ultrasound (EAUS) was done prior to the surgery to determine types of fistula and classified using Park’s classification. Follow up was made post-operatively at 4thweek, 2ndmonth, 3rdmonth, 4thmonth, 5thmonth and 6thmonth to look for the duration of healing or recurrence. Results: 5 out of 42 patients were lost to follow up leaving 37 patients available for the analysis. Mean age of the patient was 38.4 (13.8) years old. Transphincteric and intersphincteric type of fistula accounted for 54.5% and 40.1%, respectively. 62.2% (n=23) of patients achieved primary healing after the procedure. The mean for healing duration was 3.7 (3.1) months. Recurrence of the disease was seen only in 37.8% (n=14) of the patients. Conclusions: Even though we managed to achieve significant success rate cumulatively, recurrence of fistula still impose a significant challenge toward patient’s management. Therefore, further prospective study with a bigger sample size is recommended to look into this method to reduce recurrence of fistula.
Neuropathy is frequently a late complication of diabetes mellitus. Auditory neuropathy and microangiopathy of inner ear are the possible causes of hearing loss in diabetics. To study the correlation between glycaemic control and hearing threshold in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and to determine the differences of hearing threshold between groups treated with different modality. This single blind randomized controlled study was performed at the Department of Medicine and Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) between 1st May 2003 and 31st September 2004. This study was approved by Research Ethics Committee (code number FF-137). Subjects were randomized into two groups. Group 1 were patients treated with conventional oral hypoglycemic agents. The patients in group 2 were those treated with insulin injection. The subjects were seen 4 weekly for 3 months. Audiometric test were performed in all subjects at each visit. Blood were taken for fasting blood glucose, Hb1Ac, and fructosamine at every visit to determine the glycaemic controls of the subject. They were 11 patients (22 ears) treated with oral hypoglycemic agents and 17 patients treated (34 ears) with subcutaneous insulin. There is no significant difference between mean pure tone threshold before and after treatment at all frequencies in both groups. There is also no significance different in fasting glucose level and fructosamine. However, there is significant difference HbA1c levels between the two groups after treatment (P nor by the glycaemic control.