Revisit the Original Whitehead Hemorrhoidectomy The postoperative results of W-shaped circular incision & preservation of perianal skin

Kim, Ji Hun; Kang, Dong Wan; Sun, Byung Ho

Abstract

Since Whitehead had described a circular hemorrhoidectomy in 1882, many surgeons adopted it for decades for patients with protruding anal deformity. After a few decades of performing Whitehead operation, devastating complications such as anal stricture, fecal incontinence, and wet anus with mucosal eversion had been reported on the literatures and then it was buried as an abandoned procedure by surgeons for a long period. Recently, a few prominent anal surgeons reported that they could avoid such devastating complications by introducing diverse modifications of the original Whitehead's operation. The authors analyzed 22 patients who had undergone original Whitehead circular hemorrhoidectomy with the technique of preserving most of the perianal skin and W-shaped circular incision during the period from 1991 to 1996, with special regard to the com plications such as anal stricture and anal mucosal eversion which have been debated on so far and reviewed the articles about these issues. In immediate postoperative period, suture failure and resultant non-surgery requiring, mild anal stricture were documented in 3 of the 22 cases(13.6%). On long-term follow-up with the mean period of 44 months (18~79 months) in 14 cases, except those 8 cases that were lost, with phone-call questionaire, 13 patients(93%) had quite normal anal functions. The authors would like to suggest that the original Whitehead's circular hemorrhoidec tomy is a valuable surgical technique to manage the protruding anal deformity if surgeons can avoid well known complications such as anal stricture and anal mucosal eversion by choosing a correct location of initial W-shaped incision to preserve as much perianal skin as possible.