Underlying functional bowel disorder may explain patient dissatisfaction after haemorrhoidal surgery

The aim of this study was to assess patient dissatisfaction and functional symptoms following haemorrhoid surgery, aspects of which are seldom covered in other published series.

A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 359 consecutive patients (prospective database; 198 men, 161 women; median follow up, 59 [1-120] months) who underwent either Milligan-Morgan haemorrhoidectomy (n=205) or stapled haemorrhoidopexy (n=154).

The response rate was 72%; 2.4% of patients had no opinion, 13.6% were dissatisfied, 33.0% were satisfied, and 51.0% were very satisfied with the treatment. Dissatisfied patients were more likely to be women and more likely to have a long history of constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. The duration of surgery and the rates of pre- and postoperative complications did not differ between groups. Residual bleeding (49% vs 32%), prolapse (67% vs 31%) and pain (91% vs 55%) occurred more frequently in the dissatisfied group compared with the satisfied group (P<0.001). Incontinence (4 [0-16] vs 1 [0-15]; P=0.0003) and constipation (19 [1-34] vs 8 [0-31]; P<0.0001) scores were significantly higher in the dissatisfied group compared with satisfied patients. Anal pain was the predominant symptom associated with dissatisfaction in a logistic regression model.

Persistent pain remains the major long-term factor associated with dissatisfaction after surgery for haemorrhoids.