Common symptoms of piles Pain, bleeding, itching, anal discomfort and blood on the toilet paper after you finished your business on the toilet are the usual symptoms of haemorrhoids.
Moreover, you may get a lumpy feeling inside your rectum or protruding from your bottom.
Thorough investigations are required to establish the right diagnosis and rule out other conditions, for example anal fissures, fistulas, polyps or rectal cancer.
Types of piles There are two variations of piles, external and internal: while external hemorrhoids hurt, internal hemorrhoids mostly remain unnoticed.
External piles are varicosities of the blood vessels draining the territory of the inferior rectal arteries, so they may in fact be concealed from sight, while internal haemorrhoids are only visible if they become prolapsed.
As the area where internal haemorrhoids are formed lacks pain receptors, these types of piles are usually not painful.
Piles treatment options Depending on the results of your examinations, internal and external haemorrhoids can be treated using a variety of specialised ways.
While haemorrhoids can often be effectively managed by simple local medication and changes in lifestyle and eating habits, sometimes specialist medical care is to be undertaken at a specialised medical centre, or in hospital.
Conventional piles surgery Piles surgery used to be a painful process with long recovery, but these days the old-fashion type surgery rarely needed, the non-operative piles treatmentssuch as rubber band litigation or injections of sclerosing agentsprovide usually identical results with much less pain or distress.
Rubber band ligation This is a simpler office or room's treatment for piles as opposed to operation, which needs hospitalisation.
This is a method in which elastic bands are placed onto an internal haemorrhoid to block its blood supply, therefore the withered haemorrhoid will fall off in a few days.
Sclerotherapy Sclerotherapy involves the injection of a sclerosing agent, such as phenol, into the haemorrhoid.
This causes the vein walls to shrink up and the haemorrhoids to shrivel up.
This is generally a really safe and painless procedure: the injection is mainly carried out in the Doctor's office.
Skin tags Skin tags are a condition that might be misidentified as an external haemorrhoid.
Several people have an anal skin tag, an inconvenient extra skin at the anus.
This usually results in hygienic problems, and a few people get embarrassed regarding the appearance of this body part.
The removal of this condition generally carried out using local anaesthesia, and the result is usually excellent, as this area has a very good blood flow and the wound disappears quickly.
Anal fissure Other condition that mimic haemorrhoids is anal fissure.
In former times surgery was recommended, which unfortunately leads to partial anal incontinence, but nowadays this condition is usually treated with rectal biofeedback, which is a non-operative alternative to re-train the co-ordination of the abdominal, rectal and anal sphincter muscles in order to attain a normal and complete evacuation.
About non-operative therapies in general The first step when going to a specialist clinic is an exhaustive discussion about your health problem, and the next step is an examination.
You will be informed about the diagnosis before any treatment.
The required procedures are usually carried out right after the diagnosis.
As pain is very rarely a problem, the patients are able to go home (drive or transported) after the treatment.