Volume 197 - Issue 11
19th century haemorrhoid diathermy clamp
Author: William E M Renton-Power
Med J Aust 2012; 197 (11): 623. || doi: 10.5694/mja12.11349
Published online: 10 December 2012
Published online: 10 December 2012
To the Editor: In London in the late 1960s, one of my chiefs regularly used a diathermy clamp (Med J Aust 2012; 197: 193) for the management of third and fourth degree piles. The patient was anaesthetised, placed in the lithotomy position, and draped. Meanwhile, the clamp was brought to red heat on a Bunsen burner in a side room and fetched into theatre by ...
To the Editor: In London in the late 1960s, one of my chiefs regularly used a diathermy clamp (Med J Aust 2012; 197: 193) for the management of third and fourth degree piles. The patient was anaesthetised, placed in the lithotomy position, and draped. Meanwhile, the clamp was brought to red heat on a Bunsen burner in a side room and fetched into theatre by me, the assistant. The chief drew each pile down in turn, applying the clamp across the base of the pile with the shield upwards, to protect that very sensitive area. It was so held for a minute, with much sizzling and the smell of cooking flesh.
In the immediate postoperative period, the patients made rapid progress. I never saw a reactionary or secondary haemorrhage, anal stenosis or early recurrence. What the long-term results were, I do not know. I have never seen anyone else perform this operation or a description of it, but cryosurgery to piles is similar.
Perhaps, this snippet will interest the general and colorectal surgeons of today.
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.