The treatment can be divided into pharmacological (medication) and surgical options.
Patients will usually be treated with medications as a first option. Surgery is usually reserved for patients who have failed medical treatment or who have recurrent anal fissures.
There are two common medications used to treat anal fissures. They both have the same medicinal effect of relaxing the resting tone of the anal muscle and hence allowing the anal fissure to have a chance to heal. The success rate of treatment with medication is more than 60%, though recurrences are also fairly common after a period of time following completion of treatment.