Anal itching is a common symptom in the office visit in Minnesota. The initial relief of the itching does not necessarily mean the problem goes away. Continuous scratching or excessive cleaning of the anal area may further harm the sensitive tissues and worsen symptoms. In addition, the area can be highly sensitive to perfumes, soaps, fabrics, dietary intake and superficial trauma. When chronic itching occurs, the perianal area becomes white with fine fissures.

Possible causes of anal itching include:

Skin irritation: Moisture and friction can irritate the skin in the peri-anal area. Some products such as soap and toilet paper may also trigger irritation.
Hemorrhoids: Anal itching can be a symptom of hemorrhoids.
Digestive problems: Diarrhea or fecal leakage can cause anal irritation and itching.
Skin disease: Anal itching could be related to a specific skin disease, such as psoriasis or contact dermatitis.
Infections. STD, yeast infections, and the parasite may also involve the anus and can cause anal itching.
Anal tumors: Rarely, a cause of anal itching.

Treatments for anal itching include taking antihistamine as a sedative prior to sleeping to prevent the patient from unconsciously scratching, or using a topical corticosteroid to alleviate the itching. Underlying disorders such as hemorrhoids or infections must be considered and treated when diagnosing and treating anal itching.

Rubber band ligation (RBL) is one of the common procedures to treat hemorrhoids in our clinic. 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. 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. Treatment is usually limited to 1 hemorrhoid each office visit and additional areas may be treated at 2 week intervals.

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.

There are many ways to prevent the hemorrhoids for the patients in Minnesota. One of the best ways to avoid hemorrhoids or a flare up is to avoid constipation by keeping your stools soft. Eating a diet that is high in fiber such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains are recommended. Taking a fiber supplement every day, such as Citrucel or Metamucil, can help keep bowel movements regular. Drinking enough fluids is equally as important so that your urine is light yellow or clear. Water is the best form of hydration. Daily exercise is also great to help the bowel move through your digestive system and prevent you from becoming constipated. Moderate activity of at least 30 minutes 3-4 times per week is recommended. Scheduling time each day for a bowel movement and keeping it a daily routine may help. Take your time and do not strain when having a bowel movement, because it is the straining that causes hemorrhoids. Straining and holding your breath when trying to pass a stool creates greater pressure in the veins in the lower rectum. Lastly, once you feel the urge, it is important to go because if you wait to pass a bowel movement, the urge goes away and your stool could become dry and be harder to pass.

I have an interesting story that happened while I visited China a few years ago. I was invited to give a lecture on office procedures as a guest professor in Zhejiang University, China. After the academic exchange, I had a few days to myself, so I went to visit an old friend of mine (let’s call him Dave). We decided to go visit a new resort town a few hours away from the city. As we were talking in the hotel, he was looking a bit shifty on the couch, as if he was very uncomfortable. After spending an unbelievable amount of time in the bathroom, I asked him if he was having a problem, and he said he had a lot of pain going to the bathroom because of his hemorrhoids. Thankfully, this being an area of my specialty, I was able to diagnose him with having a thrombosed hemorrhoid that needed immediate treatment. I told him that a thrombosed external hemorrhoid is the common complication of hemorrhoids. If the blood clots, the hemorrhoid develops localized bulging and becomes extremely painful, especially when going to the bathroom.

Dave said he would go to the hospital, but he hesitated to go because of inconvenient medical care in China. He didn’t trust the doctors in the local small hospital, and he was indecisive in choosing a larger hospital. I told him that I had fixed countless thrombosed hemorrhoids, and that if I had the tools I needed, I could fix it for him in a flash. I went to a local hospital in the town and identified myself, the medical staff believed that I was a general surgeon at Shanghai Medical University twenty years ago and that currently I practice in the US. I asked if I could get the necessary gear to do the procedure. Amazingly, the staff in the local hospital were very helpful and generous, and I managed to return with latex gloves, a scalpel, syringes, a pack of gauze, and a bottle of Lidocaine. I got him down on the bed and we did the procedure right there in the hotel.

The procedure took only a few minutes. I gave 0.5 cc Lidociaine to numb the top of the thrombosed hemorrhoid, then sliced open the hemorrhoid with a scalpel and removed the clotted blood with a cotton-tipped applicator. Once the clot was gone, I cleaned up the area by packing large amounts of gauze. The relief was immediate and other than a little bleeding for a day or so, the problem was gone. I told Dave if he had the chance to visit Minneapolis, I can do IRC treatments to treat the root cause of problem – internal hemorrhoids.

Since its introduction 20 years ago, infrared coagulation has become the world’s leading office treatment for hemorrhoids. This non-surgical treatment is fast, well tolerated and remarkably complication-free. A small probe is placed on the hemorrhoid and a few short bursts of infrared light are applied. The infrared light quickly coagulates the vessels that provide the hemorrhoid with blood, causing the hemorrhoid to shrink and recede. Shrinkage of the hemorrhoidal tissue may take a few weeks.

There may be a quick sensation of pain during the short burst of infrared light but overall the IRC treatments are very tolerable and painless. There are no post-treatment effects in 99% of patients. Usually approx 4 treatments are required. The IRC technology is very effective in treating grade 1 and grade 2 hemorrhoids, and the general treated hemorrhoids do not reoccur. Patients return to a normal lifestyle right after the treatment on the same day. There may be slight spot bleeding a few days later and up to 2 weeks. Heavy straining or lifting should be avoided and aspirin should not be taken for a few days. A sensible diet, moderate exercise and proper bowel habits will help so no further hemorrhoids will form.

As early as 2250 BC hemorrhoids have been recorded in literature to some extent. It would probably be safe to say that it is one of the oldest ailments known to people. The Egyptians were the first people who medically recorded the remedies for hemorrhoids. They used a poultice of dried acacia leaves with a linen bandage to heal protrusions and inflammations of venous material. A Greek physician named Hippocrates also wrote about hemorrhoids describing it as bile or phlegm which is determined to be the veins in the rectum. He treated the anal protusions very crudely avocating pulling the tissue off with the finger tips, or pulling the veins upward, while someone puts a hot iron to the hemorrhoid and burns it off. The first recorded endoscopy (use of speculum to inspect the rectum)can also be credited to Hippocrates. Even the bible has records of hemorrhoids in the earliest times from the Old Testament Book of Samuel 5:9 Philistines, “punished with emerods” and Samuel 5:12, “People who moved the Ark to Ekron were punished with emerods”.

One of the earliest known hemorrhoid treatments was with the aloe vera plant. Dioscorides, a Roman physician started using that to treat inflamed hemorrhoids. Then approximately 130-200 AD a Roman physician named Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Galen) prescribed ointment, laxatives, and leeches for hemorrhoids treatment. During the same time period in India, the use of clamp and cautery was used to get rid of hemorrhoids and control bleeding.

Between the 5th and 10th Century, Byzantine physicians used thread to ligate the base of the hemorrhoid and then followed by its amputation. Using the modern era of endoscopy, Philip Bozzini , an Italian-German physician, used an aluminum tube to see the genitourinary tract. He then earned the title “The father of endoscopy”. In 1935, Doctors E.T.C. Milligan and C. Naughton Morgan further studied the excision and ligation methods, which later became the gold standard in hemorrhoidectomy. In the 1960s, banding of larger hemorrhoids was introduced with rubber band ligation. In the 1970s, cryotheraphy, diathermy, and laser cauteries were developed for treatment. In the 1990s, Stapled Hemorrhoidopexy, also known as Procedure for Prolapse & Hemorrhoids (PPH) was first described by an Italian surgeon – Dr. Antonio Longo, and since then has been widely adopted to treat the grade 3 and 4 hemorrhoids. Moreover, Another non surgical procedure, called Infra-red coagulation (IRC) was developed to treat the early stage of hemorrhoids.

Have you been using too much toilet paper because of pesky anal tags? Rest assured that these anal tags are harmless and very common. They are very similar to skin tags found in your armpit, neck, eyelids and sometimes groin. Anal tags are not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person.

Anal skin tags are flaps of skin or flesh found around the anus. The tags are usually flesh colored and hang in the opening of the anus by a stalk or stem that supplies the blood to the tag.

Anal skin tags are not caused by anal intercourse or sexually transmitted diseases. However, you need to be aware that anal skin tags are usually associated with other anorectal problems and may come about as a result of an injury, a hemorrhoid or an anal fissure.

Causes of anal tags include:

Hemorrhoids
Anal fissures. An anal fissure is a small tear in the anus usually as a result of a hard stool. Or extreme stretching of the anus.
Previous rectal surgery If you have previously had rectal surgery, those swollen skin edges may also develop into anal skin tags.
Anal infection or injury
Blocked anal gland
Tight fitting clothing

Anal tags can easily be removed in our office using local anesthetic and a radiofrequency device. The procedure only takes less than 10 minutes and you are able to drive yourself home afterwards.

Believe it or not, everyone has had a normal hemorrhoidal tissue in their rectum and anus. It’s only when your hemorrhoidal veins enlarge and become varicose veins that they’re considered abnormal or diseased.

There are three types of hemorrhoids – internal, external, and mixed hemorrhoids that consist of both internal and external. External hemorrhoids are those that occur outside the anal verge and affect bowel cleansing after one’s bowel movement, causing skin irritation and itching. A thrombosed external hemorrhoid is usually very painful due to rupture of one’s varicose veins, which causes blood clots and is often accompanied with swelling and irritation. These external hemorrhoids are typically treated with either an incision or removal of the clot, or with an external hemorrhoidectomy performed under local anesthesia.

Internal hemorrhoids are graded from I to IV based on the degree of prolapse. Grade I hemorrhoids bulge with defecation; grade II lesions also bulge with defecation, but then recede spontaneously. Grade III hemorrhoids require digital replacement after prolapsing, while grade IV hemorrhoids cannot be replaced once prolapsed. There are many treatment options for internal hemorrhoids that vary based on the severity of each case.

Your colon’s main function is to help your body eliminate waste, toxins and more from your blood, intestines and lymphatic system. Without your colon’s healthy function in your body, you can become seriously ill. A colonoscopy is among the most common types of exams performed on the colon. This is an invasive exam that allows a medical practitioner to view the inside of your colon through the use of a special scope. The procedure is most commonly recommended by a medical practitioner when a patient complains of symptoms such as bloody stools or blood in the toilet bowel, pain during bowel movements, abdominal pain when not having a bowel movement or any other abnormal or unexplained changes in bowel function. A family history of certain conditions may warranty the regular use of colonoscopy procedures as an early diagnostic step.

The procedure involves probing a long tube through the anus and into the colon. A light and camera are mounted to the end of this tube to provide the medical practitioner with the ability to visibly examine the colon. The procedure is most commonly performed on a patient under conscious sedation. In order to enjoy the best diagnostic results from your colonoscopy, you do need to have a clean colon. The colon is most commonly cleaned through the patient’s use of an enema and fasting.

Through the use of a colonoscopy, a medical practitioner can more accurately diagnose a number of colon and gastrointestinal conditions. These include colorectal polyps, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and more. In certain instances, a medical practitioner may be able to take a biopsy of suspicious areas found during the colonoscopy, and some polyps or suspicious areas can be removed during this procedure. Polyps are abnormal growths and some may be cancerous in nature. Because of this, they are most commonly removed and biopsied when found during a colonoscopy. Early diagnosis of many of these colon and gastrointestinal conditions can provide a patient with the best outcome possible. Because of this, you should schedule a colonoscopy procedure immediately upon receiving the recommendation from your doctor.