[Non-surgical alternative management of hemorrhoidal disease]. / Manejo alternativo no quirúrgico de la enfermedad hemorroidaria.

UNLABELLED: Clinical manifestations of hemorrhoidal disease depend on its location (internal or external) and the presence or not of complications. PURPOSE: To describe the results of the three most common alternatives for non-surgical procedures treating internal hemorrhoids: rubber band ligation, esclerotherapy and infrared photocoagulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective, longitudinal and descriptive study from January 1998 to December 2002 was carried out, including variables like age, gender, clinical manifestations and date of initiation, type of non-surgical alternative treatment, complications, management and stage of the illness. RESULTS: In 9,103 charts reviewed this study included 2,701 patients with hemorrhoidal disease, with an annual incidence of 540.20 patients; 1,388 (51.39%) were male and 1,313 (48.62%) were female; ages between 17 and 78 years, 44.10 as a mean age. Rubber band ligation was used in 516 patients (67.45%), esclerotherapy in 177 (23.13%) and infrared photocoagulation in 72 cases (9.41%). CONCLUSIONS: Rubber band ligation is mainly indicated for internal hemorrhoids II degree, the esclerotherapy is indicated in the suppression of acute hemorrhage, but in the long term, this method has the poorest results. Infrared photocoagulation has its best results in internal hemorrhoids I degree because it causes less pain and complications and patients accept it better.