Pilot Experience with Infrared Photocoagulation as an Office Based Procedure for the Treatment of Hemorrhoids.

Abstract

There are many minimally invasive modalities in use for the treatment of hemorrhoids, most of which are unavailable in our setting. This study sought to describe our recent experience with infrared photocoagulation with a view to stressing it's suitability as an office based procedure for treating hemorrhoids. A prospective study of consecutive patients presenting with symptomatic hemorrhoids was conducted over a 3 year period. 21 (22.3%) patients had grade 1 hemorrhoid, 53 (56.4%) had grade 2 and 20 (21.3%) had grade 3 hemorrhoids. All 20 patients with grade 3 hemorrhoids at re-assessment after 2 weeks, the grade had changed to 2. 53 (56.4%) patients had 2 sessions of treatment at 2 weekly interval, while 41 (43.6%) patients had a single session of treatment to cure symptoms. 60 (63.8%) patients had minor post procedure hemorrhage, 14 (14.9%) had mild post procedure pain, 4 (4.3%) had recurrence of symptoms and were treated via open hemorroidectomy, while 16 (17.0%) had no procedure related complication. Infrared photocoagulation is an effective, safe and well tolerated procedure for the outpatient treatment of hemorrhoids and may be used to downstage grade 3 hemorrhoids.