Piles or Hemorrhoids has become a common problem now a days. It may be due to our changed lifestyles like reduced physical activity, irregular food intake and consumption of fast food etc. These factors lead to disturbance in digestive system leading to constipation. Due to which the person has to put extra strain while passing stool leading to pulling of blood in veins and subsequent engorgement in the form of pile masses. Thus we see the Piles are nothing but engorged blood vessels in the anal canal.
Piles are commonly known as बवासीर in the society and is considered as social stigma. Due to lack of knowledge and social inhibition; people do not discuss this problem openly and are subsequently misguided by quacks like benagli treatment, madrasi treatment, Chandsi treatment etc. etc.
Anal region being a very sensitive part; the pt. usually avoids any type of surgical intervention in this area and they are looking for some alternative to surgery. We at Sushruta Anorectal Institute, are constantly trying to manage Piles in all its stages preferably without surgery or with minimal surgical intervention.
Depending upon the presentation the hemorrhoids (Piles) are grossly divided in two categories-
1. External Piles
As the name indicates; these are the pile masses which are present outside the anal orifice. They do not bleed but when large in size; may put some obstruction to the passage of stools. Some times patient complains of itching in these masses. When inflamed they become painful and swollen. They are removed by minimal surgical procedure with ligation of Ksharsutra at the root. This is an OPD procedure and patient can go home after 1 hour rest.
2. Internal Piles
There are three stages of Internal pile. In first stage; patient complains of painless bleeding. At this stage; doctor finds presence of internal pile masses on proctoscopy. In the second stage, the pile masses start protruding out while passing stool. Initially they get reduced by itself but in advanced stage; patients need to reduce these manually. In the third stage; the internal pile mass comes out not only at the time of passing stool but also while walking and sitting.
Treatment for Piles
The first stage internal piles are treated by Kshar Karma and oral medication. Second stage piles are treated successfully by combining Kshar Karma and sclerotherapy. If the pile masses are big enough then they are ligated by Ksharsutra. In the third stage also Ksharsutra ligation is done at the base of Pile mass which drops out in 5-7 days. This way the internal hemorrhoids can be successfully treated without surgery without hospitalization in all its stages.
Dos and Don'ts
The patient suffering from piles should:
- Increase consumption of fibrous food
- Increase intake of fluid/ butter milk
- Exercise regularly
- Always try to reduce the pile masses by applying pressure with fingers so that they remain inside the rectum
- Should not Spend more than 10 minutes for passing stool
- Should not Strain too much while passing stool
- Should not Consume fast food, spicy and oily food