Publication:

Sustained transanorectal cryogenic treatment of hemorrhoids with the cryocure device: a prospective study

Background Globally about 330 million people suffer from hemorrhoids at some time during their lives.  About 1.2 million new cases are reported annually, it is not discussed freely and  a simple, safe and cost effective solution is yet to be proposed. The authors studied a new technique called Transanorectal Vasoconstriction as a possible treatment of grade 1, 2 and 3 hemorrhoids.

Methods The study randomly recruited 1591 patients suffering from grade 1 to 3 hemorrhoids in Europe and India and subjected them to Transanorectal Cryogenic Vasoconstriction technique using a device called Cryocure that provides sustained release cooling of hemorrhoids leading to vasoconstriction and shrinkage. The technique was applied between 7 and 15 days and patients were assessed after 3 months.

Results The treatment outcome of 1591 patients (M:F 962:629) recruited randomly, showed that 86.12% were practically symptom free after 7 to 14 days of the treatment, and during the assessment after three months. 6.36% of the treated patients reported that one or more symptoms of itching and pain persisted but were not bleeding after the treatment period of 7 to 14 days. A few patients, 3.11% had reported that they had no benefit whatsoever from the treatment. All patients were followed for a period of 9 months. However, it was found that 4.45% of patients had various types of recurrences including bleeding.

Conclusions The present study concludes that Transanorectal Cryogenic Vasoconstriction technique using Cryocure can be a simple, safe and cost effective choice of treatment in uncomplicated grade 1, 2 and 3 hemorrhoids.