DOHA: For the first time in Qatar and probably in the Middle East, a Doha-based Austrian surgeon recently performed a minimally invasive surgery (MIS) to treat hemorrhoidal disease.
A consultant surgeon at the newly opened California Medical Center, Dr. Gerhard Szinicz, the inventor of the adjustable gastric band - a silicone device for surgical management of obesity, successfully carried out the first hemorrhoidal artery ligation with/without recto anal repair (HAL/RAR) at the Doha Clinic on Thursday.
Though HAL/RAR was invented 10 years ago, Dr. Szinicz said this was the first time the procedure had been made available in the Middle East. Dr. Szinicz, together with another Austrian surgeon performed the first RAR procedure in Europe.
"HAL/RAR is a modern and the best method since it is minimally invasive meaning smaller incision is done, almost painless and entails shorter hospital stay," said Dr. Szinicz, adding it is an answer to many patients who are afraid of experiencing pain during operation.
"Aside from the fact that conventional operation is very painful, it also has relatively high complication rate," he said.
He also noted the operation can be made without general or local anesthesia and only an intravenous sedation is recommended, therefore can be completed as a one-night surgery.
With conventional method, the patient has to wait for two to three weeks to recover, while it takes only two to three days for the patient to be back to normal activities such as work or sport.
Dr. Szinicz said in the last 10 years he treated more than 500 patients with symptomatic hemorrhoids, the cutting edge method has been very effective and highly recommended for majority of patients with hemorrhoidal disease. In fact the operation technique is widely accepted in Europe.
"More than 80 percent of the 126 surgical departments in Austria are applying this technique," he said.
A professor of surgery from Austria, Dr Szinicz has been conducting MIS for over a decade now, continuously making innovations for its advancement. He also specialises in bariatric surgery -- a surgical procedure undertaken to treat obesity.
He is one of the specialists in California Medical Centre, a surgical speciality centre with surgeons hailing from and trained in Europe.
By Raynald Rivera
© The Peninsula 2009
