ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The most frequent disease seen in the anal area is hemorrhoid. The main therapeutic approach has been surgical treatment. However, in case of first degree and second degree hemorroids, the high frequency therapy is available. It can be applied on the OPD basis by the family pratitioners. Method: The data have been collected between Nov. 1997 and Apr. 1999, 464 cases are surveyed on the basis of sex, age, symptom duration, main symptom, location and duration of hemorrhoid, associated anal disease, therapeutic complication, and patients subjective satisfaction. Only 220 out of the 464 cases were available for the patients satisfaction study because of limited follow up study. RESULT: The sex ratio is 1.18:1 (252 in male, 212 in female). Age distribution shows a clustering pattern around the middle age(158 cases in the 30s, and 142 in the 40s respectively). Symptom duration before their first hospital visit reveals 118 cases(25.4%). under 5 years, 105 cases(22.6%) over 10 years, 102 cases(22.1%) 5 to 10 years orderly. The main symptom includes hemorrhoidal mass, bleeding, and pain. 146 cases(31.5%) had all the symptom descrived above. Patients with mass and bleeding were 122 patients(26.3%). In case of the degee of internal hemorrhoid, the second degree of hemorrhoid was the most common(386 cases: 83.2%) followed by the first degree(43 cases: 9.3%), the third degree (24 cases: 5.1%) and the forth degree(11 cases:2.4%). Total number of the patients with therapeutic complication were 99 cases. The complications were acute urinary retension (46cases: 46.5%), perianal edema (30 cases: 30.3%), bleeding (18cases: 18.2%) and anal stricture (5 cases: 5.0%). Satisfaction survey was based on the 220 follow up case study. 125 cases revealed very satisfied.(56.8%), 66 slightly satisfied (30.0%) and 29 unsatisfied.(13.2%). CONCLUSION: As shown in the study above, the high frequency therapy provided the patients with the high level of satisfaction. Based on the this fact, it is suggested to the family practitioners.