[Tumescent local anesthesia in proctologic surgery].

INTRODUCTION

Tumescent local anesthesia (TLA) was introduced to facilitate liposuction and other procedures mainly in plastic surgery. The aim of our study was to evaluate if this new technique can also be safely applied in proctologic surgery.

METHODS

The following 50 proctologic procedures were performed using TLA as day surgery cases: perianal vein thrombectomy (n=15), subanodermal fistula resection (n=7), anal polyp resection (n=7), fissurectomy ( n=6), perianal abscess revision (n=6), excision of anal skin tags (n=3), hemorrhoidectomy for thrombosed piles (n=3), intersphincteric fistula extirpation (n=1), pilonidal sinus (n=1), and perianal tumor excision (n=1). The subcutaneously infused solution contained 200 ml of Ringer's solution, 50 ml of 2% Mepivacain, and 2.5 ml of epinephrine diluted 1:10,000.

RESULTS

During an average application time of 14.3+/-4.9 min, a mean of 93.1+/-40.7 ml tumescent solution was infused. This dosage resulted in complete pain relief after 18.3+/-5.0 min. Local anesthesia was maintained up to 14 h postoperatively, with a mean duration of 6.7+/-1.9 h. Two patients developed moderate hematomas which required no further treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our pilot study demonstrates that slow infusion tumescent local anesthesia can be widely and safely applied in proctologic surgery and enables the performance of these procedures on an outpatient basis.