Doppler-guided hemorrhoidal artery ligation.

BACKGROUND

In 1995, Morinaga reported a new technique for the treatment of hemorrhoids, hemorrhoidal artery ligation (HAL), which uses a specially designed proctoscope coupled with a Doppler transducer for identification and ligation of hemorrhoidal arteries.

METHODS

Because the arteries carrying the blood inflow are ligated, internal pressure of the plexus hemorrhoidalis is decreased.

RESULTS

We report the results of the first 308 patients (189 male and 119 female; median age 50.1 years) who have been treated at our department since 2002 and followed-up for a median period of 18 months. Eighty-nine patients had grade II, 192 patients had grade III, and 27 patients had grade IV hemorrhoids. The acute symptoms of hemorrhoids were treated immediately by performing HAL.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study showed that HAL is painless, effective, and has a low rate of complications. It can be applied in an outpatient setting and is an good alternative to all other hemorrhoid treatment methods.