PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty patients presenting with haemorrhagic radiation proctitis and treated with formalin dab were prospectively analysed.
RESULTS: Twelve patients ceased to bleed following one session of formnalin dab. Six patients needed more than one session to effect haemostasis. Two of three patients with torrential bleeding failed to respond to formalin dab and required surgical excision of the rectum.
CONCLUSION: Formalin dab is a simple, effective and safe treatment modality in the management of chronic haemorrhagic radiation proctitis, and hence should be considered as the initial treatment modality for such a condition.
METHODS: We conducted a study on 34 patients with HRP and randomly assigned the patients to two treatment arm groups (n=17). The formalin group underwent 4% formalin dab and another session 4 weeks later. The irrigation group self-administered daily rectal irrigation at home for 8 weeks and consumed oral metronidazole and ciprofloxacin during the first one week. We measured the patients' symptoms and endoscopic findings before and after total of 8 weeks of treatment in both groups.
RESULTS: Our study showed that HRP patients had reduced per rectal bleeding (p = 0.003) in formalin group, whereas irrigation group showed reduced diarrhoea (p=0.018) and tenesmus (p=0.024) symptoms. The comparison between the two treatment arms showed that irrigation technique was better than formalin technique for tenesmus (p=0.043) symptom only.
CONCLUSION: This novel treatment showed benefit in treating HRP. It could be a new treatment option which is safe and conveniently self-administered at home or used as a combination with other therapies to improve the treatment outcome for HRP.
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