What is the hemorrhoids surgery?
Surgery to remove the hemorrhoids may be used if other treatments fail. However, hemorrhoid surgery may result in severe pain. New, less painful techniques are being investigated, including Doppler-guided hemorrhoid artery ligation, in which hemorrhoid arteries are identified and tied off, thus reducing the blood supply to the hemorrhoids; and circumferential
stapled hemorrhoidectomy.
Rubber band ligation can be used to treat internal hemorrhoids. It involves placing a small rubber band around the base of the hemorrhoid. This stops the flow of blood to the area and the hemorrhoid withers away.
Internal hemorrhoids can also be destroyed by injecting them with chemicals or by burning them. A hemorrhoidectomy (surgical removal of the hemorrhoid) may be needed if internal hemorrhoids are prolapsed or very large.
If you have continued bleeding, prolapsed hemorrhoids that cannot be pushed back into place, uncontrollable pain, or severe rectal itching, surgery is needed.
The surgeon might inject the hemorrhoids with a medicine to shrink them or place small rubber bands around the hemorrhoids to cut off the blood supply so they will die. These procedures are usually done in the office and don't require you to be put to sleep or admitted to a hospital.
Less commonly used treatments are cryotherapy in which the hemorrhoid is essentially frozen off, or laser therapy, in which the hemorrhoid is burned off.
Sometimes, it is necessary for the surgeon to actually cut the hemorrhoids off. In this case you will need to be put to sleep or have a spinal anesthetic. |
