Internal hemorrhoids are common anorectal diseases, which is clinically characterized by painless rectal bleeding with or without prolapse. Most patients still occur repeatedly after dietary, lifestyle changes or drug treatment, which seriously affect their quality of life. Minimally invasive or even surgical treatment is needed eventually.
With the rapid development of endoscopy, endoscopic treatment has become one of the main treatments of internal hemorrhoids, of which, endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) and ERBL are the most commonly used. A meta-analysis of 18 related articles conducted by MacRae et al. [11] found that the therapeutic effect of ERBL was significantly better than that of EIS in grade I ~ III internal hemorrhoids, especially for grade III internal hemorrhoids with severe prolapse (grade I and grade II: p = 0.007, grade III: p = 0.042), and there was no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative complications (p = 0.350). In this article, ERBL was recommended as the initial treatment of grade I to III internal hemorrhoids. Coughlin et al [12] conducted a cost-benefit analysis for 2026 patients who received surgical or ERBL treatment, and found that ERBL had lower cost and higher postoperative quality of life than surgical treatment. In addition, ERBL had a significantly higher success rate for the solution of anal prolapse than EIS [13].
Regarding the mechanism of hemorrhoids, the theory of "anal cushion sliding downward” proposed by Loder [14] is popularly recognized at present. This theory refers that the supporting tissue of the anal cushion, which is composed of venous plexus, smooth muscle and connective tissue, is damaged, thus the anal cushion slides downward, leading to the dilation and deformation of hemorrhoid blood vessels. The suspension ligation mentioned in this paper is a new ligation method based on above theory. By ligating the mucous membrane above the dentate line, the prolapsed anal cushion can move upward, as a result, the prolapse degree of internal hemorrhoids can be relieved and the incidence of postoperative adverse events such as bleeding, edema and pain et al, can be reduced [15]. In this study, we found that the proportion of using suspension ligation in grade III internal hemorrhoids group was significantly higher than that in grade I and II internal hemorrhoids groups, the postoperative adverse events was significantly lower than that in other two groups. Multivariate analysis also found that suspension ligation was the protective factor for postoperative adverse events. These results are consistent with previous studies [15]. Therefore, suspension ligation can reduce the occurrence of postoperative adverse events, especially for severe prolapse of internal hemorrhoids.
Postoperative anal pain is one of the main adverse events of ERBL. Previous studies have reported that the incidence of anal pain after ERBL is 13.3%-55.2% [3, 16, 17]. In this study, the incidence of anal pain after ERBL was 18%, and the incidence of moderate and severe pain was only 5.6%, which was lower than that of previous studies. Most patients' pain can be relieved by warm sits bath or oral painkillers. There are great differences among different studies, which may be related to factors such as the different definitions of pain and treatments among different studies.
We think that the possible factors associated with anal pain after ERBL are as follows: first, increasing number of ligation bands may lead to excessive traction and increased tension of the local mucosa, thus resulting in traction pain. Schleinstein et al [3] found that the incidence of anal pain in patients with ligation bands ≥ 3 was significantly higher than that in patients with < 3 bands. However, the study performed by Tian et al [18] found that there was no significant correlation between postoperative adverse events and the number of ligation bands, which is consistent with our results. Second, regarding the location of ligation, some studies recommend ligation at the 0.5 ~ 1.5cm above the dentate line during ERBL [19], while some studies only emphasize that the ligation site should be located in the insensitive area above the dentate line. At present, the diameter and length of the suction cap of the ligator are both 1cm. In addition, it is difficult to identify of the dentate line because of its zigzag distribution, which both lead to a higher risk of accidental injury to the dentate line. This may be the reason for the high incidence of anal pain after ERBL in some studies. The anorectal line is the upper edge of the anal cushion, which is easy to identify. The site of 1-2cm above the anorectal line is away from the dentate line, ligation in this site can reduce the occurrence of postoperative anal pain. A previous study of our team also showed that ligation with reference to the anorectal line can reduce the incidence of postoperative pain [20]. In this study, 50% of the cases were ligated with reference to the anorectal line, which may also be the reason for the low pain rate in this study. Third, the bad visual field may also be a factor of anal pain. Both the expert opinions and guidelines for the internal hemorrhoids recommend ligation with inverted endoscope [4, 9], because the visual field is wide when the endoscope is reversed, so the anatomical marks of hemorrhoid nucleus and anal canal can be clearly observed and the appropriate ligation site can be determined.
Postoperative bleeding is another common adverse event after ERBL, with an incidence ranging from 8.3% [11] to 62.1% [21]. In our study, its incidence was 4.1%, which was lower than that in previous studies. Most of the bleeding is a small amount, which can be stopped by conservative treatment. Schleinstein et al [22] reported that 29.3% of patients had mild bleeding at 2h post-ERBL and the rate declined to 10.3% at 10–14 d with observation or symptomatic treatment. However, a small number of patients with massive bleeding caused by bands loss may need emergency endoscopic hemostasis or even surgery. Therefore, the tension of the ligature site can be reduced by root supplementary ligation and series ligation during ligation, so as to reduce the possibility of band removal. In addition, coagulation disorders [23], taking anti-platelet and/or acetylsalicylic acid [24] can increase the risk of bleeding related to ERBL. It is routinely recommended that patients should stop this medication for at least 1 week prior to, and 2 weeks post ERBL [25]. The risk of the hemorrhoidal bleeding against the risk of thrombotic events must be balanced.
There are some limitations in this study. First, this is a retrospective and single-center study, which meant that some data, such as the body mass index, type of endoscope, could not be collected. Second, the data in this study is from a tertiary medical center, and the level of operation may be different from that of other hospitals. Third, the follow-up time of this study is short, only 6 months. Therefore, prospective, multicenter, long follow-up studies are warranted in the future to validate our results.
In conclusion, this study found that ERBL was effective for grade I ~ III internal hemorrhoids and there was no significant difference in the effectiveness rate between them. However, the adverse events (including anal pain, bleeding, urinary retention, et al) 24h after ERBL of grade I and II internal hemorrhoids were significantly higher than those of grade III internal hemorrhoids. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that the non-suspension ligation was an independent risk factor for postoperative adverse events. In the future, prospective, multicenter, long follow-up studies are warranted in the future to validate our results.