Background:

The first applications of laser energy in the gastrointestinal tract occurred just a decade ago. Since then, laser therapy has been widespread in the management of colon and rectum disease. In the present study, we report the initial experience of laser use in the treatment of anorectal conditions in the period of January 2013-August 2016 in the city of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.

Material and methods:

Descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study. We included patients from the Colon and Rectum Surgery Services of several hospitals in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico, with laser treatment at the Hospital General Zona Norte of the health services of the state of Puebla, Hospital Angeles Puebla and Hospital Puebla from January 2013 to August 2016. Inclusion criteria: Patients with diagnosis of grade II or III hemorrhoids, anal fistula, non-abscessed pilonidal cyst, perianal and anal canal condylomatosis, and those with acute chronic anal fissure. The analysis of the variables was by means of the program SPSS version 22 (IBM). Results were expressed using descriptive statistics.

Results:

We registered a total of 304 patients treated by laser application for anorectal disease, of which 161 (53%) were men and 143 (47%) women. The largest group with anorectal involvement was group A, with 187 (61%) patients with hemorrhoidal disease using the HLP technique; in the case of group D, 14 (5%) patients with fistula diagnosis, we used FiLaC (fistula laser closure), with 14% recurrence at the third postoperative month. All patients were hospitalized less than 24 hours for the surgery.