Freedom from pain after hemorrhoidectomy; an operative technique and results.

As the attention of the surgeon is increasingly directed to bolder exploration into viscera which have hitherto seemed forbidding, we must not become complacent about our performance in familiar fields. That the record in regard to hemorrhoidectomy is far from ideal is attested to by the lengths to which patients go to put off the evil day. There have been no papers on this subject on the program of the Western Surgical Association since, at least, 1941; yet the majority of anorectal operations will continue to be performed by general surgeons during the foreseeable future. In my opinion, neither the proctologic specialist nor the general surgeon can inflict the irreducible minimum of postoperative pain on his patient by following the conventional techniques of hemorrhoidectomy. Dissatisfaction with such tedious convalescence led me in 1938 to make a critical review of the accepted techniques. It became clear at once that many surgeons