A retrospective study of 240 cases of haemorrhoids treated by cryosurgery with a 1 to 5 years' follow-up confirmed the immediate and long-term effectiveness of this method which resulted in lasting cure in more than 95% of the cases. The main advantages of the method are that it causes little pain and disablement, is relatively inexpensive and has virtually no complications. It main drawback is that the procedure must sometimes be repeated when the lesions are large. Although cryosurgery is in theory applicable to all forms of the haemorrhoidal disease, it is best indicated for stage I and stage II haemorrhoids.