Efficacy of calcium dobesilate in treating acute attacks of hemorrhoidal disease

PURPOSE: A randomized, double-blind, controlled study was conducted to inve stigate the efficacy of oral calcium dobesilate therapy in treating acute a ttacks of internal hemorrhoids. METHODS: Twenty-nine well-documented adult patients with first- or second-degree internal hemorrhoids were treated wit h calcium dobesilate for two weeks, while16 patients received only a high-f iber diet to serve as control. Both symptoms and anoscopic inflammation wer e scored on a scale from 0 to 2 before (T-o) and two weeks after treatment (T-2). RESULTS: A success rate of 86.21 percent with cessation of bleeding plus lack of severe anitis anoscopically at two weeks were achieved with ca lcium dobesilate. The pretreatment symptom score of 2 fell significantly to 0.45 +/- 0.13, and the pretreatment anitis score of 1.69 +/- 0.09 fell to 0.55 +/- 0.12 at T-2 (P = 0.0001 for both comparisons). The symptom and ano scopic inflammation scores obtained with calcium dobesilate treatment were also significantly better than those with diet only (P = 0.0017 and P = 0.0 013, respectively). CONCLUSION: Together with recommendations about diet an d bowel discipline, oral calcium dobesiiate treatment provides an efficient , fast, and safe symptomatic relief from acute symptoms of hemorrhoidal dis ease. This symptomatic healing is associated with a significant improvement in the anoscopically observed inflammation.