Rubber Bands Relieve Hemorrhoids

It’s not something you may be comfortable mentioning to your doctor, but hemorrhoids are nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Hemorrhoids are natural for everybody to have. It’s just a question of whose hemorrhoids are bothering them,” says Dr. Steve Moenning, a general surgeon with Lee Memorial Health System.

But you don’t have to live with the pain and discomfort, and most cases may not require surgery.

“There’s other options where if it’s just an internal hemorrhoid we can actually treat that patient in the office with a painless procedure,” says Dr. Moenning.

A common treatment involves the physician using medical rubber bands to tie off the hemorrhoid at its base, cutting off the blood flow to the vessel.

“That’s a nice procedure because you can do it at the time of the office visit. So somebody could actually miss no work, come in and have the hemorrhoids taken care of,” says Dr. Moenning.

Called rubber band ligation, doctors are able to destroy the hemorrhoid. An ultrasound probe pinpoints the artery that feeds the inflamed blood vessel. Doctors tie an absorbable suture around it, the technique cutting off blood supply: without any cutting.

“It basically sucks up the hemorrhoid, puts a rubber band on the tissue and then that tissue would slough off after about ten days,” says Dr. Moenning.

After the procedure, your doctor may recommend that you take stool softeners containing fiber and drink more fluids to prevent hemorrhoids from recurring.

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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