Rafaelo® meets expectations of a minimally invasive technique.

A French prospective multicentre study assessed RFA (Rafaelo®) in 129 outpatients with grade II–III haemorrhoids with a 1 year follow up.

16 Centres participated in the research. RFA was performed in the operating room under locoregional or general anaesthesia. Primary endpoint was the evolution of a quality-of-life score adapted to the haemorrhoid pathology (HEMO-FISS-QoL) 3 months after surgery. Secondary endpoints were evolution of symptoms, complications, postoperative pain and medical leave.

The researchers concluded that RFA is associated with an improvement in quality of life and symptoms with a good safety profile. As expected for minimally invasive surgery, postoperative pain is minor with short medical leave. They pointed out that regarding average operating times, RFA is more rapid (15 min) than other techniques.