The Most Common Office Procedures for Treating Hemorrhoids
After you’ve been diagnosed with hemorrhoids, the first thing your doctor will recommend is a high fiber diet. Eating more fiber reduces straining, promotes regular bowel habits and helps to make stools softer, all of which are essential for better colon health. For most people, a high diet can significantly reduce symptoms and help prevent future flare ups, but some people may need addition help to control symptoms. Fortunately, there are many excellent procedures for hemorrhoids that can be done in an office setting, they offer quick recovery times and minimal pain, which makes them very convenient. The most popular of these office procedures are: rubber band ligation, infrared coagulation, electrocoagulation and sclerotherapy.
Rubber Band Ligation
Today, the rubber band ligation is the most commonly performed office procedure. This treatment has been around since 1958, but became more practical and popular with the invention of the ligator. Barron invented the Barron ligator and wrote about the procedure in 1963 and although he wasn’t actually the first doctor to use rubber bands to treat hemorrhoids, his development of the ligator really helped to modernize the procedure making it quicker and more effective. The ligator is a medical device that shoots a small rubber band around the hemorrhoid, it made the procedure more streamlined and precise. The band cuts of blood circulation to the hemorrhoid allowing it to slowly shrivel up in about a week at which point the bands fall off and leave the body through the stools.
Although it’s possible to band multiple hemorrhoids at once, some doctors will elect to do multiple treatments in order to reduce the possibility of pain.
Infrared Coagulation
Infrared radiation is used to coagulate tissue protein and evaporate water from the cells causing the hemorrhoid to dry up. This procedure is most effective on Grades I and minor Grade II hemorrhoids, it doesn’t work well at all on prolapsed hemroids. Studies show that this treatment will require more successive treatments than with rubber band ligation in order to get hemroid relief, but the upside is that most patients report less pain with this procedure.