Development and status of proctology in Japan

Formerly in Japan, the treatment of anal diseases was performed with techniques transmitted from Asian countries such as China and Korea using herbs, necrotizing agents, ligation, seton, and other methods. Before World War II, western medicine and techniques were brought in from Germany, including Whitehead's operation. After the war, new knowledge was introduced from the United Kingdom and the United States: ligation and excision for hemorrhoids, sphincter-preserving methods such as Hanley's and Parks' for fistulas, and sliding skin graft methods such as Carmels' for anal fissure. After their introduction, those methods were revised and improved in Japan. Unfortunately, however, the results of those improvements were not introduced to other countries in medical journals or in presentations at international conferences. At this time, I am honored to give an overview of proctology in Japan for this special Japanese issue.