Ferguson hemorrhoidectomy: is still the gold standard treatment?

• DOI: 10.1007/s13304-012-0155-2
• Publication Date: 2012-04-09T09:30:25Z
• Authors: Marco Milone; Paola Maietta; Maddalena Leongito; Giuseppe Pesce; Giuseppe Salvatore; Francesco Milone
• Keywords: Gold standard (test)

Hemorrhoidectomy remains the most definitive procedure to treat symptomatic grades III and IV hemorrhoids. However, over the years, several modifications have been made to the original operation to improve the outcomes. A total of 693 consecutive patients with grade III and IV hemorrhoids underwent Ferguson hemorrhoidectomy. Our results serve as a standard for comparison conventional hemorrhoidectomy (Ferguson's technique) with recent methods such as stapled hemorrhoidopexy and LigaSure hemorrhoidectomy. We have obtained a very low rate of post-operative pain after Ferguson hemorrhoidectomy (VAS pain score was 2.47 ± 1.1 after a day, 1.34 ± 0.7 after 7 days and 0.51 ± 0.1 after 2 weeks) as to for stapler and LigaSure procedure in the literature. Moreover, long-term results demonstrate high levels of patient satisfaction (the satisfaction was good in 624 patients after 2 weeks and in 658 patients after 1 year) with a low recurrence rates (7 patients had recurrence after 1 year and 21 patients after 2 years). We believe that Ferguson-closed hemorrhoidectomy could still be, at the moment, the gold standard to which other techniques are compared.