Category Archives: hemorrhoid banding

Here’s What to Expect After Undergoing Rubber Band Ligation | Minnesota

August 24, 2018 admin

Rubber band ligation (RBL) is a common treatment method for hemorrhoids, especially prolapsed hemorrhoids, in Minnesota. This office procedure is almost never appropriate for grade 1 or mild grade 2 hemorrhoids (which are treated with IRC) or more severe grade 4 hemorrhoids (which are treated with surgery). RBL involves a doctor inserting a scope into the anus and clamping onto the prolapsed hemorrhoid to place a rubber band around its base, cutting off the blood flow to the hemorrhoid and causing it to shrink and die off. The procedure only takes a few minutes but is usually limited to one hemorrhoid per office visit. RBL downgrades hemorrhoids to grades 1 or 2, and any remaining hemorrhoids are typically treated with infrared coaguation (IRC).

What Happens After the Procedure?

After rubber band ligation, you’ll typically experience a bit of pain and a feeling of fullness in the lower abdomen, as well as an urge to have a bowel movement. These sensations are totally normal and usually subside within a few days. You may also experience small amounts of anal/rectal bleeding for about 7 days after procedure due to the hemorrhoid falling off. It’s encouraged to avoid physically intense activities that strain the body for at least 2-3 weeks. While some patients are able to return to regular activities immediately, others may need a couple days of downtime and bed rest.

Below are a few guidelines for navigating your post-rubber band ligation recovery process:

Avoid any strenuous exercises, such as biking/cycling, jogging, weight lifting, and aerobics, for 2-3 weeks or until your doctor gives you the green light.

Avoid lifting heavy objects for 2-3 weeks, including groceries, backpacks/briefcases, dog food, children, etc.

If you previously took any medications or blood thinners, such as warfarin (Coumadin), clopidogrel (Plavix), or aspirin, your doctor will let you know when it’s okay to restart your meds.

Take your post-surgery pain medications exactly as directed, but do not take two or more types of pain meds at the same time unless instructed to.

Take showers/baths as usual, but make sure to thoroughly dry the anal area dry.

Drink plenty of fluids, and eat lots of high-fiber foods to aid your bowel movements.

Take stool softener such as Colace to keep stool soft.

Try to avoid straining during bowel movements.

To speed up your recovery process, take a sitz bath (sit in 2-3 inches of warm water for 15-20 minutes) three times daily AND after bowel movements. Remember to pat the anal area dry afterward.

Call your doctor immediately if you cannot pass stools or gas, see bright red blood soaking through the bandage, or see signs of infection (increased pain, swelling, redness, pus draining from the area, fever).

Posted in Easy Hemorrhoid Care, Hemorrhoid, hemorrhoid banding, Hemorrhoid Care, hemorrhoid clinic, hemorrhoid doctor, Hemorrhoid treatment, Hemorrhoid treatments, Hemorrhoids, internal hemorrhoids | Tagged Tagged Hemorrhoid Minneapolis, Hemorrhoid MN, Hemorrhoid St. Paul, Hemorrhoids Minneapolis, hemorrhoids Twin Cities, Infrared coagulation, internal hemorrhoids

What are the Best Treatments for Hemorrhoids? | Minneapolis & St Paul

May 19, 2018 admin

The term “hemorrhoid” has been used to refer to both normal anatomic tissue and pathologic structure. Hemorrhoid diseases are swollen and varicose blood vessels in the lower rectum. They are among the most common causes of anal complaints in the office visits.

Hemorrhoids diseases include internal hemorrhoids, external hemorrhoids, anal tags, thrombosis of hemorrhoids and mixed hemorrhoids. Internal hemorrhoids are graded from I to IV based on the degree of prolapse. Besides causing anal itching, pain, bleeding and prolapse, hemorrhoids could cause other complications, such as thrombosis, anemia, and infection. Moreover, many hemorrhoid patients have a comorbidity of anal fissure, fistula, or anal warts. Because no single treatment modality can fix all hemorrhoids, a true hemorrhoid clinic will offer multiple treatment modalities and options to meet a patient’s specific needs and provide complete care.

If you are treated with single modality for your hemorrhoids, regardless of the severity, type of hemorrhoids, and associated anorectal conditions, it leads to poor results because of poor quality care.

Internal hemorrhoid Grade 1
Very early hemorrhoids can often be effectively dealt with by dietary and lifestyle changes. The lifestyle changes should also be part of the treatment plan for more advanced hemorrhoids.
1. Eating plenty of high-fiber foods
2. Drinking plenty of fluids
3. Keeping stool soft
4. Good toilet habits
5. Doing exercise regularly, but avoid heavy lifting
6. Reducing weight

Internal hemorrhoid Grade 1-2
Infrared coagulation (IRC) is a non-surgical treatment that is fast, well tolerated, and remarkably complication-free. The infrared light quickly coagulates the vessels that provide the hemorrhoid with blood, causing the hemorrhoids to shrink and recede.

Internal hemorrhoid Grade 3
The third grade internal hemorrhoids can be treated with the combination of infrared coagulation and rubber band ligation (banding). Rubber band ligation is widely used for the treatment of more advanced (more prolapsed) internal hemorrhoids where the prolapsed hemorrhoidal tissue is pulled into a double-sleeved cylinder to allow the placement of rubber bands around the tissue. Over time, the ligated tissue dies off. Rubber band ligation downgrades the hemorrhoids to grade 1 or 2, so some patients may need to do Infra-Red Coagulation (IRC) treatments after rubber band ligation.

Internal hemorrhoid Grade 4
A hemorrhoidectomy surgically removes the tissue that causes bleeding or protrusion. It is done in a doctor’s office, surgical center, or hospital under anesthesia and may require a period of inactivity.

External hemorrhoidal tags (anal tags)
Small and asymptomatic tags don’t need any treatment. If symptomatic, anal tags can easily be removed in the office using a local anesthetic and a radiofrequency device.

Thrombosed external hemorrhoids
These hemorrhoids are typically treated with either incision to remove the clot or with external hemorrhoidectomy. Simply draining the clot usually relieves the pain immediately, but it may not work well if multiple thromboses exist as it can also lead to recurrence, so it is better for patients with multiple thromboses to completely excise the thrombosed hemorrhoids.

External hemorrhoids
Small and asymptomatic external hemorrhoids don’t need any treatment, however most patients will have an intermittent flare up. Eventually patients may need surgery (external hemorrhoidectomy) if you have large external hemorrhoids and/or persistent symptomatic external hemorrhoids.

Posted in Hemorrhoid, hemorrhoid banding, hemorrhoid clinic, hemorrhoid doctor, Hemorrhoid treatments, Hemorrhoidectomy, Hemorrhoids, Infrared Coagulation, internal hemorrhoids | Tagged Tagged Hemorrhoid Minneapolis, Hemorrhoid MN, Hemorrhoid St. Paul, Hemorrhoids Minneapolis, hemorrhoids Twin Cities, Infrared coagulation, internal hemorrhoids

How Many Times can You Have the Rubber Band Ligation Treatments | Minnesota

March 18, 2018 admin

Rubber band ligation (RBL) is one of the common procedures to treat hemorrhoids. RBL is an office procedure that mainly treat the prolapsed hemorrhoids in the advanced grade 2 and grade 3 hemorrhoids.

RBL is very effective in treating hemorrhoids, but it is not very efficient because RBL treatment is usually limited to one hemorrhoid each office visit and additional areas may be treated at 2 week intervals. Most patients need 2-4 RBL sessions. The patients will have more rectal discomfort, rectal tenesmus (feeling of incomplete defecation), and pain if given the RBL in two locations at the same time.

The hemorrhoid tissue has to be prolapsed enough to be tied off at its base with rubber bands, so it cannot be performed if there is not enough tissue to be pulled into the barrel in the banding device. This procedure is almost never appropriate for grade 1 or mild grade 2 hemorrhoids. The infra-red coagulation (IRC) is the better option for early and mild hemorrhoids.

The RBL process involves a doctor inserting an anoscope into the anus and grasping the prolapsed hemorrhoid with a long clamp to place a rubber band around its base. With the rubber band in place, the hemorrhoid dies off in a few days or a week. The procedure is done in a doctor’s office and only a couple of minutes.

After the procedure, some patients may feel tightness, mild pain or have the feeling of bowel movement. Most patients are able to return to regular activities (but avoid heavy lifting) almost immediately. If you feel some pain after banding, you may use Tylenol or Ibuprofen as needed and do a lot of Sitz bath to relieve discomfort. Some patients may have slight rectal bleeding in a week. If you notice significant rectal bleeding, then you should call your doctor’s office.

Posted in hemorrhoid banding, hemorrhoid clinic, hemorrhoid doctor, Hemorrhoid treatments, Hemorrhoids | Tagged Tagged Hemorrhoid Minneapolis, Hemorrhoid MN, Hemorrhoid St. Paul, Hemorrhoids Minneapolis, hemorrhoids Twin Cities, Infrared coagulation, internal hemorrhoids, Rectal Bleeding, rectal itching, Rectal lump, Rectal Pain

Google Searches for Hemorrhoids Information Skyrocketed Since 2008 | Minneapolis & St Paul

March 2, 2017 admin

A few years ago, I read an interesting article on hemorrhoids written By Bahar Gholipour on LiveScience. It reported that the number of Americans searching online for hemorrhoids and how to treat them has skyrocketed since 2008. Information gathered from Google searches suggests that searches have doubled from 2008 to 2013. The term “hemorrhoids” was searched about 40,000 times weekly between 2004 and 2008, but this number started to rise during mid-2008, crept up to about 80,000 weekly searches in 2010, and reached nearly 120,000 during some weeks in 2013. I believe that the number could have tripled by now.

There could be two reasons why more people go online to search for hemorrhoid information. First, more people are becoming more comfortable with the Internet. More often than before, I’ve heard even from the elderly patients that they found our hemorrhoid clinic through Internet. Second, diseases such as hemorrhoids may be among the most searched-for online because people could be embarrassed to talk about them with a doctor. Many patients don’t realize that hemorrhoids are a common medical condition that affects many Americans. “Nobody has it but me” is one of the misconceptions about hemorrhoids.

If you search for “hemorrhoids” on Google, it shows about 8,220,000 results. Not all webpages are informative and useful. We have built an informative hemorrhoids website, hemorrhoidheal.com, that provides essential information about hemorrhoid care.

Posted in External Hemorrhoid, Hemorrhoid, hemorrhoid banding, Hemorrhoid Care, hemorrhoid clinic, hemorrhoid doctor, Hemorrhoid treatment, Hemorrhoids | Tagged Tagged Hemorrhoid Minneapolis, Hemorrhoid MN, Hemorrhoid St. Paul, Hemorrhoid Treatment, Hemorrhoidectomy, Hemorrhoids Minneapolis, Infra-red Coagualtion, IRC, Rectal Bleeding, Rectal Pain

What Kind of Hemorrhoid Patients in Minnesota Need the Banding Treatments?

December 16, 2016 admin

No single treatment modality can fix all hemorrhoids or get rid of anorectal symptoms. Early hemorrhoids can often be effectively treated with by Infra-red Coagulation (IRC) and dietary and lifestyle changes, but more advanced hemorrhoids may need Rubber band ligation (RBL) or hemorrhoidectomy.

RBL is one of the common procedures to treat hemorrhoids in in Minnesota. RBL is an office procedure in which the prolapsed hemorrhoid tissue is tied off at its base with rubber bands. It works very well for prolapsed hemorrhoids, such as the advanced grade 2 and grade 3 hemorrhoids. It cannot be performed if there is not enough tissue to pull into the barrel in the banding device. This procedure is almost never appropriate for grade 1 or mild grade 2 hemorrhoids (treated with IRC), or most severe (grade 4) hemorrhoids (treated with surgery).

The process involves a doctor inserting an anoscope into the anus and grasping the prolapsed hemorrhoid with a long clamp to place a rubber band around its base. Cutting off the blood flow to the hemorrhoid causing it to shrink and dies off within a week. The reduced volume of venous tissue with the scar formation prevents hemorrhoid tissue bulging into the anal canal. The procedure is done in a doctor’s office and only a couple of minutes. Treatment is usually limited to 1 hemorrhoid each office visit and additional areas may be treated at 2 week intervals. Most patients require two to four treatments. Rubber band ligation downgrades the hemorrhoids to grade 1 or 2, some patients may need to do IRC to treat the remaining hemorrhoids after Rubber band ligation.

After the procedure, some patients may feel tightness, mild pain or have the feeling of bowel movement. Most patients are able to return to regular activities (but avoid heavy lifting) almost immediately. If you feel some pain after banding, you may use Tylenol or Ibuprofen as needed and do a lot of sitz bath for 15-30 minutes at a time to relieve discomfort. Some patients may have slight rectal bleeding in a week. If you notice significant rectal bleeding, then you should call your doctor’s office.