Anal surgery by laser
Written by:Dr. Antonio Ramón Rull Ortuño is a general and digestive surgeon and belongs to Top Doctors, the select circle of top-level doctors in Spain. Next, he will talk about anal laser surgery.
What anal pathologies can be treated thanks to laser technology?
At this time, within the anal diseases that more or less everyone knows as hemorrhoids, there are other diseases that also affect the anus such as fistulas, fissures or condylomas that are rare diseases but also exist and that are confused with hemorrhoids. Laser surgery allows to treat all these diseases but each one is treated with a different type of laser. The laser we use for hemorrhoids is one called elicoidal, which allows the hemorrhoid to be extirpated and cauterized practically without pain. For fistulas a radial type laser is used that allows the treatment of the same with preservation of sphincters and also without producing pain. And for the condylomas we use the CO2 laser for the vaporization of them. All these pathologies currently achieve a better post-operative, a better recovery of patients and the prompt reincorporation of these to their working life.
What advantages does this technique offer over traditional ones?
The advantages offered by laser surgery are basically 2, the first is that in the post-operative there is less pain, the patient has a better comfort after the intervention. First because you do not have to use electric scalpels that burn this anal area and then also because the laser is a beam of light that cauterizes at the same time that removes that hemorrhoid or treats that fistula. All this supposes that there is no need to put points in the area of the anus, that the nervous structures are respected and that the inflammation of the surgery is lower in these patients. All these advantages give a greater comfort in the post-operative and a better recovery of the patient after the surgery.
What is the intervention?
The intervention of hemorrhoids surgery will depend on the type of hemorrhoid. Hemorrhoids called grade 1, grade 2 or grade 3 are internal, unlike grade 4 hemorrhoids, which are external and can be seen by the patient. In grade 1, a type of laser is used that allows the localization of the hemorrhoidal artery and the coagulation of the same by means of beam impulses.. In contrast, in grade 4 hemorrhoids that the patient sees on the outside, we must proceed to remove them with a diode laser that makes a resection, a complete extirpation of this hemorrhoid, in all its way, in all its anal margin.
