Novel minimally invasive techniques were established for prolapsing haemorrhoids to minimise the drawbacks of the golden standard of haemorrhoidal treatment, conventional haemorrhoidectomy techniques. Ligation techniques, such as Doppler-guided haemorrhoidal artery ligation (DG-HAL), were introduced to reduce the arterial inflow of the AVP and thus prevent the haemorrhoidal zone from being part of the continence system. Apart from inappropriate application of this surgical alternative for higher grade haemorrhoids, high recurrence rates of up to 38% after DG-HAL are due to technical failure of the ligation technique itself. This is a prospective randomised controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of additional Doppler-guided ligation of submucosal haemorrhoidal arteries in patients with symptomatic grade III haemorrhoids.

All consecutive patients with symptomatic grade III haemorrhoids are randomly allocated to one of the two study arms: (A) DG-HAL with mucopexy or (B) mucopexy alone. Endpoints are pain, faecal incontinence, bleeding, residual prolapse and vascularisation of the anorectal vascular plexus. Vascularisation of the anorectal vascular plexus is assessed by transperineal contrast enhanced ultrasound.

Inclusion Criteria:

• grade III haemorrhoids
• ≥18 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

• malignant gastrointestinal disease
• inflammatory bowel disease
• any type of proctological intervention (i.e., fistula surgery)
• recurrent haemorrhoidal disease
• anorectal trauma in the history