Doppler-guided hemorrhoidal artery ligation

Background: In 1995, Morinaga [1] 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 hernorrhoidalis 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 iollowed-up for a median period of 18 months. Eighty-nine patients had grade 11, 192 patients had grade 111, 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. (c) 2006 Excerpta Medica Inc. All rights reserved.