Treating Piles without surgery possible

Region's first "Ano-rectal Problems Revisited" workshop was held on Sunday (6 March 2011) at SIPS Super-speciality Hospital, Shahmeena Road, Chowk, Lucknow, which brought together distinguished surgeons from the country. One of the senior-most and reputed surgeons of the country, Professor (Dr) RP Sahi inaugurated this scientific meet.

"According to varying estimates 50-85% of the world’s population suffers from piles or haemorrhoids at some stage in their lives, especially the risk to develop piles alarmingly increases between 50-70 years of age" said Professor (Dr) Rama Kant, Executive Director of Piles To Smiles Clinics, who is also a former Head of the Surgery Department at CSM Medical University (erstwhile KGMC).

"It is surprising that piles or haemorrhoids have not been high up on the public health agenda despite of the incredibly high prevalence and practical approaches to prevent or manage them" said Prof (Dr) Rama Kant who is the national President-elect of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI).

"This meet also featured a unique non-surgical technique for the management of Piles like Doppler-guided haemorrhoidal artery ligation (DGHAL) and Recto-Anal Repair (RAR). The beauty of this procedure lies in the fact that the patient is discharged within a few hours and is back to work, the very next day" said Prof (Dr) Rama Kant, who is also a recipient of World Health Organization (WHO) Director General’s Award in 2005 and lead author of the book "PILES TO SMILES."

"There are known lifestyle and dietary factors that aggravate the risk to piles significantly" added Dr Venky Munikrishnan, Director of Chennai Colo-Rectal Clinic.

Other faculty members of the workshop included Dr Yogesh Mishra, Professor PK Sharma, Dr Arshad Ahmad from CSMMU and Professor Ashok Kumar from SGPGI.
Apart from scientific sessions, there were operative workshops, video demonstrations and hands-on training on ano-rectal surgery.

Piles are swellings that develop from the tissues that line the anal canal or back passage. The tissue of the anal canal is rich in blood vessels. If these vessels become dilated and swollen, they may project into the anal canal or out of the back passage (known as a prolapse) to form visible swellings. 
Piles tend to be caused by factors that cause the blood vessels to swell, including anything that increases pressure inside the abdomen such as constipation, pregnancy or being overweight. Prevalence of piles is higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women of the same age group.

Rahul Kumar Dwivedi - CNS