Healing of Anorectal Wounds with Reference to "Rectal Medication"

Under the impact of modern chemotherapy it became abundantly clear that potent therapeutic agents, such as the steroid hormones, when applied to the anogenital area in a vanishing type base (cream) exert a profound local pharmacologic effect, e. g., in pruritus. In numerous instances, when these same drugs are applied in an oleagenous ointment or grease base they are ineffective, and vice versa. These observations as well as subsequent studies led to our almost complete discontinuance of the topical application to the anogenital skin of drugs in oleagenous ointment, a vehicle which one of us had employed in the past.* In line with the foregoing and other observations, we instituted an investigation of the effects of various therapeutic agents in ointments and creams on the healing process of the anorectal wounds; to some of these agents healing-promoting qualities had been attributed by authors or in the promotion of marketed preparations.