City surgeon standardizes laser treatment of piles, gets 100% pain-free result

Nagpur: Laser treatment for piles is being preferably used by the treating doctors and at least urban patients are well aware about it.
Known technically as ‘laser haemorrhoidoplasty’, it’s a relatively new procedure in which the haemorrhoidal blood flow is coagulated by laser. While there are various types of laser treatments performed with the use of different kinds of machinery and methods, city surgeon Dr Nilesh Junankar has standardized laser treatment for piles and presented the benefits of it in his recent study conducted in Nagpur.
Dr Junankar, a colorectal surgeon, is also president of Association of Surgeons India (ASI) Nagpur Chapter. The retrospective cohort study was conducted at his hospital between February 2017 and March 2020. Recently, the Iranian Journal of Colorectal Research published this paper in its recent issue. Arguably, it’s the first ever publication from India on laser treatment of piles in international research journal.
It has some interesting outcomes like standardized laser treatment gave 100% patient satisfaction in terms of pain. Standardization has made this process safe with good short and long-term results and minimal recurrence. Only 1 out of 250 patients studied in this research had recurrence, said the doctor.
“We have seen at least 15% jump in piles cases after the first lockdown in 2020. After the second lockdown in 2021, I was seeing about 35% more patients of piles. I thought presenting this data of standardization of treatment would be most appropriate at this point of time,” said Dr Junankar.
“Many doctors use laser treatment these days but there was no standardization till now. As patients are growing due to sedentary lifestyle and changed eating habits, there is a need to bring some uniformity and standards into the treatment,” he added.
Of the 250 patients included in this study, 116 were women and 134 men. Their mean age range was 16-85 years. Of them, 10 (4%) patients were habituated to daily consumption of alcoholic drinks, 15 (6%) were diabetic and well-controlled on oral hypoglycemic drugs, 38 (15.2%) were hypertensive, 12 (4.8%) had ischemic heart disease, and 4 (1.6%) patients had cirrhotic liver disease.
All four grades of piles were included in the study. This means that the patients, irrespective of age, sex, physical condition and pre-existing illnesses. have recovered after standardization of laser treatment.