[2 Complications following hemorrhoidectomy performed by the technic used at Saint Mark's Hospital in London]

The author discusses two minor, but nevertheless very unpleasant, complications which can occur following haemorrhoidectomy according to the St Mark's Hospital London technique. The first consists of a healing defect in one of the two or three incisions with local reorganization and inadequate granulation tissue, which results in the classical picture of anal fissures(s) several weeks after the operation. The reasons for this are quite complicated, but in general there is a persistence of local inflammation which should have resolved after the phase of simple wound toilet. The treatment is that for ordinary fissures. The second complication is the post-operative pain itself, which should be much less severe with modern techniques. It is caused by local inflammation. It is easily controlled with anti-inflammatory agents like phenylbutazone. Both these complications have in common the persistence of harmful inflammatory phenomena.