Daflon 500 mg in the treatment of hemorrhoidal disease: a demonstrated efficacy in comparison with placebo.

Hemorrhoidal disease (HD) is a trophic disorder of the anal canal characterized by recurrent, self-resolving acute episodes. The author reports the results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the efficacy of Daflon 500 mg in the treatment of acute and chronic symptoms of hemorrhoids. One hundred and twenty outpatients (54 men, 66 women) suffering from an acute episode of HD during the previous two months were included. They received Daflon 500 mg (group D, n = 60) or placebo (group P, n = 60) two tablets daily for two months. The patients were examined at entry (T0) and at two months (T2). At T0, the two groups did not differ in terms of age, sex, weight, height, history of symptoms of HD; 7 patients were excluded from analysis because of treatment failure (group D, n = 2; group P, n = 3), or lost to follow-up (group P, n = 2). In group D, 40% of patients had an attack during the trial with a mean duration of 2.6 days and a mean severity of 1.1 scored on a scale from 1 to 3. These values were significantly different (P < 0.01) from the corresponding values in the P group: 70%, 4.6 days and 1.6 respectively. Each symptom and sign was scored on a scale of severity. The overall symptom score, scored from 0 to 15, decreased from 6.6 (group D) and 6.1 (group P) (NS) to 1.1 and 4.0 respectively (P < 0.01) at the end of treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)