Infrared coagulation: A new treatment for hemorrhoids

Abstract

Many methods, which have effectively reduced the number of patients requiring hospital admisssion, have been described for the outpatient treatment of hemorrhoids. However, complications have been reported, and the methods are often associated with unpleasant side effects. In 1977 Neigeret al. described a new method that used infrared coagulation, which plroduced minimal side effects.

The authors have conducted a prospective, randomized trial to evaluate infrared coagulatioin compared with more traditional methods of treatment. The authors' results show that it may be more effective than injection selerotherapy in treating nonprolapsing hemorrhoids and that it compares favorably with rubber band ligation in most prolapsing hemorrhoids. No complications occurred, and significantly fewer pattents experience pain after infrared coagulation (P=<0.001).