A physiotherapy treatment after hemorroidectomy and fistulectomy: A case report

Background and Objective: Anal fistula is the most common cause of severe anal pain during rectal surgery. Patients experience pain and discomfort during the immediate post-operative period and some specialties e.g., physiotherapy could be taken into account for mitigating pain and improving the scar healing. Although no researches have performed concerning the post rectal surgery physiotherapy, it leads to surgeons uncaring to this apparently important point. Therefore, the current study aimed to prepare a new physiotherapy protocol after rectal surgery and to investigate its effectiveness in one patient. Materials and Methods: This study carried out on a 45 year-old male. He was suffering from pain and bleeding in the rectal area and on medical examination and colonoscopy, he was diagnosed with external hemorrhoid and anal fistula. After hemorroidectomy and fistulectomy, physiotherapy protocol was performed in five phases.  Results: The results showed that the pain medication needed just for 4 days and the patient returned to work within 3 days. In addition, the intensity of pain, difficulty in bowel movement, difficulty in mobility, and stress from bowel movement (measured by VAS) removed within 5th days. This result in comparison with previous studies showed the faster improvement of the pain and scar healing and complete recovery took about 4 weeks.  Conclusion: The beneficial effects of physiotherapy protocol were demonstrated, especially in aged patients with background diseases.