What are they?

What are haemorrhoids and what causes them to form?

While most of us know someone who suffers from haemorrhoids, the majority of us do not know exactly what they are. Haemorrhoids are flaring of the veins in the upper part of the anal canal, as a result of congestion of the blood in these veins.

One of the common mistakes in this field is that this condition is only found in older people. The truth is that haemorrhoids can appear at any age, and affect twice as many men as women.

A wide range of factors contribute to this condition, including inheritance, climate, age, sex, pregnancy, obesity and chronic use of suppositories.

Nutrition also appears to play an important part

It is known that a fibre-rich diet stimulates intestinal peristalsis and reduces the risk of suffering from haemorrhoids. On the other hand, it is generally considered that a diet low in fibres and high in carbohydrates can cause small, hard stools, which are the main cause of constipation and can lead to haemorrhoids.

How do I know if I have haemorrhoids?

This is probably the most common question in the general practitioner's surgery. The simplest answer is that most of the symptoms are normally present in patients, with haemorrhaging being the most common sign of suffering from haemorrhoids.

If you find blood in your stools, this must be inspected immediately, as it normally means you are suffering from haemorrhoids. Any other cause of blood loss must be discounted. Pain is a frequent symptom when you are suffering from thrombosis or when a prolapse has become strangulated.

All this may sound alarming, but it isn't!

The good news is that there are treatments for haemorrhoids and not all episodes require active treatment. There are many cases where other options are possible.

Non-surgical treatments

Intestinal constipation:

Regular bowel movement is vital. Diarrhoea and constipation must be avoided when a person suffers from haemorrhoids. Diarrhoea can cause haemorrhoidal congestion and during this period, it is essential to raise your fibre level and maintain a high level of fluids.

Topical treatment:

This basically refers to anti-inflammatory creams, which are very useful in the acute phase of haemorrhoids in any state, but they do not reduce a prolapse or alter the state of a lesion.

Non-surgical treatments:

These include injection sclerosis, infra-red coagulation, rubber-band ligation and manual dilation of the anus.

Surgical treatments:

Until now, when patients tried alternative treatments which failed, the only solution was to stay in hospital for a selective operation. Traditional surgical operations required the treatment to be applied on the haemorrhoidal tissue itself, and often turned out to be incomplete or involved a lengthy recovery period, anal esthenosis, urinary retention and sometimes serious incontinence.
One of the biggest problems until now has been the difficulty of performing these operations on out-patients, due to the wide range of technical problems.


What is DGHAL?

DGHAL is a new-millennium treatment for a centuries-old problem. It enables a patient, who previously was subjected to a very painful surgical operation (a haemorrhoidectomy), to be treated in approximately 20 minutes, without general anaesthetic or the need to spend the night in hospital (in fact, the treatment can be done in the surgery).

The KM25 is a modified proctoscope, only 25 cm in diameter, which includes a Doppler transducer and a working window which allows the surgeon to identify and tie the haemorrhoidal arteries.

This simple operation ties and obstructs the terminal part of the upper rectal arteries which supply blood to the haemorrhoidal tissue. In the vast majority of cases, it is observed that the haemorrhoids begin to shrink immediately.

It is interesting to observe that in the past it was believed that there were three haemorrhoidal arteries. However, with this technique, it has been discovered that there are up to six arteries of this type. All six arteries are tied during the procedure.

Also with the DGHAL procedure , there is less pain than with a normal haemorrhoidectomy. The procedure involves much less pain, and it is more manageable. As result, it is possible to resume daily activities much more quickly.

It has been observed that 90% of patients go back to work within 48 hours, and some the following day. Given this option, it is not surprising that many patients, unwilling to undergo a traditional, painful haemorrhoidectomy, accept this very simple alternative.
This DGHAL method is becoming the standard treatment for haemorrhoids all over the world.

Over 10,000 patients have been treated using DGHAL (especially in Japan , Australia , South-East Asia and Europe ) in the last 15 years, with a success-rate of 95%.

Currently, surgeons all over Europe are beginning to use DGHAL as the first-option treatment, especially in Austria , Germany , Italy and Great Britain , where many operations are performed every day with excellent results.

Dr. K Morinaga, inventor of the KM25 , along with Dr. Dennis Meintjes and Dr. Gorge
Karam, world experts in DGHAL , has performed studies with interesting results. These studies have encouraged us to consider this treatment.
In a study of 1,415 patients, the treatment was carried successfully in 93.2% of cases, and unsuccessfully in 6.8% of the patients, after 5-24 months. This is highly impressive.
Our results in Catalonia are equally impressive.
The best candidates are patients with external and internal haemorrhoids and those who require a large amount of elastic bands. DGHAL is additionally used to treat bleeding haemorrhoids (which are large internal haemorrhoids), and it is also used to treat large internal haemorrhoids and large external haemorrhoids.

As a result of their experience with this new therapy with so many patients, the following additional advantages have been observed:

  • THERE IS NO NECROSIS (tissue death due to inadequate blood flow)
  • THERE IS NO SLOUGHING (tissue detachment)
  • THERE IS NO ISCHEMIA (transient inadequate blood flow)
  • THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS OF EVACUATION OF THE STOMACH FOLLOWING THE PROCEDURE (compared to traditional haemorrhoidectomy)
  • THERE IS NO URINARY RETENTION

When a patient requires a haemorrhoidectomy, a DGHAL procedure is carried out in its place. This procedure has been demonstrated to be a safe, efficient alternative to haemorrhoidectomy. Our results are just as spectacular as the studies carried out around the world…

At last, Mankind's oldest problem has an easy, safe and simple solution, without general anaesthetic and at low cost.


Haemorrhoidal Vascular Arrangement in the recto-anal region