Less postoperative pain and more frequent recurrence: Can this dilemma caused by the stapled haemorrhoidopexy procedure be avoided?

Background: Although early studies highlighted the advantages of stapled haemorrhoidopexy (SH) (minimal pain and a rapid return to work), long-term follow-up revealed that residual skin tags, external prolapsed haemorrhoids and recurrence were frequent. The aim of our study was to investigate whether the above-mentioned problems could be prevented by performing additional interventions (AIs) during SH. We compared SH with and without AIs in terms of pain, wound-healing time, patient satisfaction and recurrence.

Methods: A total of 106 patients with Grade III-IV haemorrhoids diagnosed between 2016 and 2018 were included. There were four subgroups: Grade III-IV patients undergoing SH alone or SH + AI.

Results: Subgroup 1 (Grade III; SH alone) showed significant decreases in the visual analogue scale pain scores on days 1 and 15 (P = .004), but no significant decreases were found in subgroups 2-4 (P = .839, P = .092, and P = .781, respectively). Satisfaction was highest in subgroup 1 (4.22 ± 1.01), but there was no significant difference in satisfaction among the subgroups (P = .323). The overall recurrence rate was 13.2% and the difference among subgroups was significant (P = .023).

Conclusions: Depending on the haemorrhoid characteristics, the use of more than one repair method provides the best results. Although AIs increase pain and wound-healing time, patient counselling enhances long-term satisfaction and success.