Hemorrhoid Surgery – Advice on Ideal Candidates, Pre-Operative Preparation, and Post-Operative Care

Hemorrhoid surgery is a last resort treatment for hemorrhoids conditions that have not been successfully treated using alternative, conventional, non-invasive or semi-invasive means. A basic treatment offered during hemorrhoid surgery, also identified as a hemorrhoidectomy, involves giving the patient a spinal anesthesia or a general anesthesia so the surgery is often offered in a hospital setting.

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A physician will make one or more incisions around a formation so that the swollen vessel creating the formation can be tied off and the swollen hemorrhoid can be removed. Often times, the incised area will require stitches to close the open wound.

Alternatively, a doctor may use a staple technique where the formation is elevated and the root of the formation is stapled just below the formation. If cutting the formation is required, a doctor may use a laser, a cautery pencil, or a traditional scalpel.

Hemorrhoid Surgery Alternatives

Your physician may recommend a number of treatment methods before choosing hemorrhoid surgery as an option. Your alternatives may include one or more of the following hemorrhoidal treatment methods:

Conservative Treatments: the use of suppositories or creams offered over-the-counter in conjunction with lifestyle changes.

Sclerotherapy: The use of a needle to inject a chemical into the hemorrhoidal formation which, in turn, forces the shrinking of swollen anorectal vessels.

Rubber Band Ligation: The placement of a band around the root or base of a formed hemorrhoid; this practice is performed to cease blood flow to the affected area thereby forcing the reduction of swelling.

Cyrotherapy: The act of using liquid nitrogen to freeze hemorrhoidal formations so that they shrivel up and fall away.

Laser Therapy: The act of using a laser or infrared light to shrink hemorrhoidal formations.

Surgical Candidates

The ideal candidate for hemorrhoid surgery is a person that has oversized external or internal hemorrhoids that have not been alleviated with alternative treatment measures. Surgery is sometimes offered to patients that suffer for recurring hemorrhoid formations, whether they are internal or external.

Usually, this treatment method is saved as a last option and is implemented only after every other appropriate treatment method has been tried.

Hemorrhoid Surgery Preparation

About a week before surgery, a patient will need to cease using over the counter products like Naprosyn, Aleve, naproxen, Motrin, Advil, ibuprofen, and aspirin. The patient will also need to stop using Coumadin or warfarin as directed by his or her physician; these medications will affect the blood’s ability to clot and can cause excessive bleeding during and after the surgical procedure.

If the patient is using any herbal remedies, these should also be stopped as some herbs have anti-coagulating effects.

Hermorrhoid surgery is usually offered on an outpatient basis; the patient will have to be driven to and from the surgery by another individual since the patient is offered an anesthetic during the operation. The evening prior to the surgery the patient will not be allowed to eat anything or to drink a lot of beverages; sipping water is allowed however.

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Surgical Techniques

Hemorrhoidectomy – PPH

PPH Hemorrhoid Surgery is a treatment for dealing with prolapsed hemorrhoid; these formations were at one time internal, but have since been forced outside the anus. A physician will use one or more staples to hold the formation back in place internally: this gives the formation time to shrink and heal on its own.

Hemorrhoidectomy – Milligan Morgan

This hemorrhoid surgery method was created by Dr. Morgan and Dr. Milligan in the late 1930s; a physician using this surgical method will excise three of the major vessels contributing to the formation of a piles. Out of all surgical treatment methods, the Milligan Morgan method is the most common.

Hemorrhoidectomy—Ferguson

The Ferguson hemorrhoid treatment method was created in the early 1950s by Dr. Ferguson.

This treatment method is an adapted Milligan-Morgan treatment. The Ferguson method involves the partial or total closure of the incisions made during hemorrhoid removal. The wounds are closed off with a running suture that is absorbable and does not require later manual removal.

Post Operative Care and Recovery

Since the anorectal area will be sore following the surgical procedure, the patient will be required to take an over the counter stool softener as directed. Sitz baths can offer relief if one experiences a lot of pain and discomfort, and the doctor will likely prescribe a pain medication for alleviating your discomfort as well.

Alternating ice applications for twenty minutes on and twenty minutes off can help to keep the area numb and to diminish pain. Provided there are no complications that prolong your recovery, you can anticipate a recovery rate of roughly fourteen days.

Hemorrhoid Surgery Risks

Since a hemorrhoidectomy is an invasive treatment, there is a number of health risks associated with having a hemorrhoidectomy performed. Side effects from surgery can include bleeding in the anorectal area, the formation of blood clots, potential infection of the treated area, postoperative pain and discomfort, and anorectal itchiness.

Additional risks associated with this kind of surgery include things like the onset of fecal impaction brought on by difficulty with bowel evacuation; a prolapsed rectum, the development of an abnormal passage between the rectal canal and other internal areas, and the onset of more hemorrhoids.

Facts About Hemorrhoid Surgery and hemorrhoids in General

Hemorrhoids can occur due to a variety of different factors, such as: obesity, aging, pregnancy, continual constipation or diarrhea and anal intercourse. Hemorrhoid surgery only usually becomes necessary in cases when hemorrhoid starts giving intolerable pain, itching and bleeding.

Hemorrhoids can occur in any area of the rectum i.e. inside or outside the anal canal. External hemorrhoids occur outside the anal canal and they can be seen or felt near the anus. The symptoms of external hemorrhoids include swelling and pain in the anus or a lump is formed outside the anus. The treatment for such hemorrhoids is not complicated and can be cured with hemorrhoid surgery.

As we mentioned at the begining of the article, hemorrhoid surgery is usually a last resort. Before you turn it to you should make sure that you have exhausted all the other main options.

To take a look at some of the most effective treatments/methods/products, we have come across to-date, visit our best hemorrhoid treatments page. You can also take a look at our how to get rid of hemorrhoids without surgery page.