What are Hemorrhoids?

 

Hemorrhoids refers to a painful condition where veins around the lower end of the rectum or anus become inflamed and swollen, usually inducing a burning sensation, tenderness and aggravated symptoms like bleeding. Hemorrhoids are often referred to as painful clumps or bumps in and around the anal opening.

Understanding Hemorrhoids

Rectum forms the last part of the large intestine from where feces are directed to the anal opening. When the anal-rectal passage is subjected to excessive pressure due to factors like straining too hard on the toilet, presence of hard stools, pregnancy or severe constipation, the stools tend to push against the anal and rectal tissues, causing hemorrhoids. Severity of hemorrhoidal pain or presence of bleeding varies across different patients.

Occurrence of Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are more common than what is generally believed. The medical fraternity believes that most people suffer from some form of hemorrhoids during their lifetime. Many times, hemorrhoids develop minimally and self-resolve without inducing the general range of symptoms.

Classification of Hemorrhoids

There are various ways of classifying hemorrhoids. The most common way of categorization includes External & Internal Hemorrhoids. External Hemorrhoids are located under the skin of the anal opening. Internal hemorrhoids are present within tissue of the lower rectal region. Internal hemorrhoids are more likely to prolapse through the anus, i.e. they protrude through the anal opening and are easily palpable. These are referred to as Prolapsed Hemorrhoids.

Piles

Pathological Hemorrhoids or Piles is a general way of referring to both, internal and external hemorrhoids, which highlights the presence of swollen or tender hemorrhoidal veins.

Thrombosed Hemorrhoids

External Hemorrhoids are sometimes referred to as Thrombosed Hemorrhoids. Actually, Thrombosed Hemorrhoids are different from the usual External Hemorrhoids. Thrombosis refers to clotting of blood and Thrombosed Hemorrhoids refers to presence of blood clots within the hemorrhoidal veins.

Understandably, blood clots increase the blood pressure in the affected veins, inducing more pain. Thus, Thrombosed Hemorrhoids are diagnosed as a complication or advanced stage of External Hemorrhoids. Here, severe pain can be felt in the affected area upon sitting or undertaking simple physical activities.

The degree of clotting and number of blood clots define the extent of swelling or ballooning of the affected veins. This is when hemorrhoids can be clearly felt as big bumps within the anus. Here, chances of severe itching and rectal bleeding upon passing stools rise exponentially.

Thrombosed External Hemorrhoids are easily diagnosable due to their tenderness, extensive ballooning and typical coloration as they usually have a deep-reddish or bluish-purple shade.

Classifying Internal Hemorrhoids

Internal Hemorrhoids are usually classified by the degree of prolapse where Grade I prolapse refers to absence of prolapse while Grade IV refers to severe prolapse than cannot be corrected manually and needs surgery.

Getting Familiar with Hemorrhoid Treatments

Thankfully, hemorrhoids can be treated comprehensively with only a small fraction of patients requiring surgery, who let the hemorrhoids get worse. During the early stages of hemorrhoids, treatment with  non-prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) remedies is a sensible approach since it prevents the problem from progressing and totally avoids the suffering that ensues.

You can find the best hemorrhoid treatment for you apart from educating yourself about lifestyle changes that help in better management and prevention of hemorrhoids.