Benefit of emergency haemorrhoidectomy: A comparison with results after elective operations

Objective: To compare the outcome of emergency and elective haemorrhoidectomy. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Belgium. Subject: 104 patients who had haemorrhoidectomy for acutely ulcerated or strangulated haemorrhoids, and 545 who had elective haemorrhoidectomy. Results: Early complications (26/104, 25%). reoperation (7/104, 7%) and late anal stenosis (7/104, 7%) were more common after emergency than elective haemorrhoidectomy, for which the corresponding figures were 74/545 (3.6%), 9 (1.7%) and 1/545 (0.2%). Late outcome was similar for the two groups. Conclusions: Emergency haemorrhoidectomy is indicated for the treatment of the acute complications of haemorrhoids.