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.