Identifying Landmark Factors of Anal Fistulas

Identifying Landmark Factors of Anal Fistulas Through Predictive Modeling for Adverse Surgical Outcomes: a Retrospective Cohort Study

The goal of this observational study is to understand the effects of anatomical factors, etiology, and complexity of anal fistula on the prognosis of patients undergoing anal fistula surgery within one year post-operation.The main question it aims to answer is:

Which factors are indicative of the prognosis of anal fistula surgery? Which factors are landmark factors of anal fistulas?

Participants who have already undergone anal fistula surgery at our hospital will receive outpatient and telephone follow-up to assess their prognosis.

The search function of the electronic medical record system and surgical records were used to screen patients. For the enrolled patients, the electronic medical record system, imaging report query system, medical order system, outpatient follow-up and telephone follow-up were used to collect data Data were entered into Excel 2021 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and checked for errors before conducting statistical analyses using R software (version 4.2.2; The R Foundation, Vienna, Austria).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients diagnosed with an anal fistula through clinical and radiological examinations; surgeries performed by physicians at our hospital who had at least a title of Associate Chief Physician, with operative records completed after surgery; patients with complete clinical data; and patients who completed post-operative outpatient follow-up and agreed to participate in telephone follow-up surveys.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who were assessed clinically as unable to tolerate surgery; patients who refused surgical treatment; and patients who failed to complete the outpatient follow-up, refused telephone follow-up, or were lost to follow-up.