Recurrence after stapled haemorrhoidopexy

The surgical procedure of stapled haemorrhoidopexy is now considered safe, and its reliability is improving with experience and technical upgrading. Compared to conventional procedures, the short-term advantages of stapled haemorrhoidopexy include less postoperative pain, faster recovery and healing, whereas the disadvantages of the procedure in the long term include an increased possibility of recurrent prolapse. The percentage of symptomatic prolapse after stapled procedures widely varies in the several clinical trials described in the literature, ranging between 2 and 53.3 %. Many short- and long-term complications of the different treatments for haemorrhoids (conventional, stapled or realized with different new devices) have been reported in the literature. Less evidence is available about how to minimize these undesirable effects of stapling procedures, and there are no studies that describe and classify recurrences and the strategies to deal with them.