208 Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan 2013, Vol. 23 (3): 208-210 INTRODUCTION Outpatient operations are common all over the world. These operations are not only beneficial for the economy of health and treatment, but they also have treatment benefits. 1 Over 60% of non-emergency operations in the U.S. are outpatient in a way that their whole expenses are 25 – 75% less than inpatient operations. 2 Considering the fact that the types of diseases as well as their cures are quite influential on the patients' satisfaction, the present study evaluates the satisfaction in patients on whom haemorrhoidectomy has been done. Haemorrhoid is a common disaese. 3 In the U.S., one million people are affected by haemorrhoids every year. In fact, 4.4% of the U.S. population has haemorrhoid symptoms. 4 Haemorrhoi- dectomy can be treated either by outpatient operation with local anaesthesia in day clinics or by inpatient operation with general anaesthesia in the hospital's operating rooms. Since the tendency toward the low- invasive operations is seen in different studies, 5 this study was conducted to compare the patients' satisfaction between outpatient and inpatient haemorrhoi-dectomy. METHODOLOGY A total of 208 patients were inducted in this cross- sectional study. All patients were examined by their specialists and after definite diagnosis of haemorrhoidal disease and need for haemorrhoidectomy they were randomly allocated, by the secretary, into two groups: A and B - outpatient and inpatient respectively. Group-A which included 103 patients (65% males and 36% females) were operated in the operating room, while group-B which consisted of 105 patients (51% males and 49% females) were operated in the clinic. All patients were visited two times one and two weeks after operation by a colorectal surgeon at the clinic. Then, all of the patients were invited to the waiting room and completed a satisfaction questionnaire. The validity of questionnaire was approved according to the review of published articles as well as the professionals and a sociologist's points of view, and its reliability was evaluated in a pilot study and Cronbach's alpha of 0.80 was acquired. In case that the patient had any problem in writing, he/she was interviewed by trained interviewers and the questionnaire was completed. The questionnaire included 21 questions in which patients' satisfaction from the operation, treatment, operation's environment, nursing services, explanations and instructions, appointments for the operation, costs of the operation and the waiting time were measured. The satisfaction level could be chosen from: perfect, well, moderate, and dissatisfied which were presented by numbers 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The satisfaction level was evaluated as follows: 1 – 1.5 as dissatisfied, 1.5 – 2.5 as moderate satisfaction, 2.5 – 3.5 as well, 3.5 – 4 as perfect satisfaction. CLINICAL PRACTICE ARTICLE Comparison of the Patients' Satisfaction after Inpatient and Outpatient Operations for Haemorrhoidal Disease Ali Keshtkaran 1 , Seyyed Vahid Hosseini 2 , Leila Mohammadinia 3 , Zahra Sajjadnia 4 , Abbas Rezaianzadeh 5 and Ali Mohammad Bananzadeh 6 ABSTRACT Objective: To compare the patients' satisfaction between outpatient and inpatient haemorrhoidectomy. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Faghihi Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, from January to July 2011. Methodology: A total of 208 patients were involved in this cross-sectional study. All patients were examined by their specialists and after definite diagnosis of haemorrhoid, they were randomly allocated to two groups: outpatient and inpatient. Data for this study was collected by a satisfaction questionnaire. Results: There was no statistical significant difference between the two groups' satisfaction. Both groups were quite satisfied. Also, there was no statistical significance regarding the variable of time of visit. In addition, there was no association between the patients' satisfaction and with, occupation, and level of education. Conclusion: Based on the results of the study, minor operations such as haemorrhoidectomy are better to be done in clinics since they do not differ from the operating room regarding the patients' satisfaction. Key words: Patients' satisfaction. Operation. Haemorrhoidectomy. Inpatient. Outpatient. School of Management and Information Science 1 / Laparoscopy and Stem Cell and Transgenic Technology Research Center 2 / Health Service Management, Faghihi Hospital 3 / Statistics of Science College 4 / Epidemiologic Ward, School of Health 5 / Colorectal Research Center 6 , Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Correspondence: Dr. Ali Keshtkaran, School of Management and Information Science, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. E-mail: keshtkaa@sums.ac.ir Received November 14, 2011; accepted January 10, 2013.