What are the hazards of hemorrhoids?

What is Hemorrhoids? What are the hazards of hemorrhoids? The main symptoms of hemorrhoids are bloody stool and prolapse. Repeated bleeding during defecation can cause a large amount of iron loss in the body, leading to iron deficiency anemia. This is because under normal circumstances, the absorption and excretion of iron maintain a balanced state, and the loss of iron is very small. The daily iron loss in normal adult men does not exceed 2 mg. However, if patients with bloody stool lose more than 6-8 ml of blood per day, they will lose more than 3-4 mg of iron. The total amount of iron in the normal human body is 50 mg per kg of body weight for men and about 35 mg per kg of body weight for women. If long-term bloody stool causes a large amount of iron loss and reduces the total amount of iron in the body below normal, it can lead to iron deficiency anemia.

What are the hazards of hemorrhoids? Iron deficiency anemia caused by blood loss from hemorrhoids generally develops slowly. In the early stage, there may be no symptoms or only mild symptoms. When the anemia is severe or progresses rapidly, symptoms such as pallor, fatigue, decreased appetite, palpitations, increased heart rate, shortness of breath and edema after physical activity may appear. Some patients may experience neurological symptoms such as irritability, excitement, and restlessness. Some people believe that this is due to the lack of intracellular iron enzymes. All these symptoms can disappear after correcting the anemia and treating the hemorrhoids. Therefore, if you find that you have hemorrhoids, you should seek treatment as soon as possible to avoid these symptoms and complicate the treatment.

Another major symptom of hemorrhoids is internal hemorrhoid prolapse. Internal hemorrhoids prolapsed outside the anus are held by the sphincter muscle, obstructing venous return while arterial blood continues to flow in, making the hemorrhoid increase in size until the artery is compressed and closed, thrombosis forms, resulting in hardening and pain of the hemorrhoid, making it difficult to return to the anus. Traditionally, this condition is called "strangulated internal hemorrhoids."

However, in clinical practice, external hemorrhoids with thrombosis are more common, so they are often accompanied by pain. When the hemorrhoid cannot be returned, it is also called "prolapsed hemorrhoids." Long-term prolapse of the hemorrhoid can lead to the following pathological changes:

(1) Necrosis: When the hemorrhoid is prolapsed outside the anus, a series of pathological changes occur, causing metabolic products to accumulate locally, further aggravating local edema of the anus, worsening the prolapse of the hemorrhoid, forming a vicious cycle. Therefore, if internal hemorrhoids are prolapsed for a long time, necrosis will inevitably occur. At this point, the necrosis is usually limited to the mucosa part of the hemorrhoid, but there are also cases where other parts of the body are affected. There have been reports abroad that the thrombus inside the hemorrhoid spreads upward, and the necrotic area extends to the rectal wall, resulting in serious septicemia in the pelvis. Although this situation is rare, it must be highly valued by clinical doctors.

(2) Infection: After the hemorrhoid prolapses, there is often infection of varying degrees, and patients present symptoms such as tenesmus and obvious feeling of anal heaviness. At this point, the infection is mostly localized in the anal area. If forcibly repositioned, it can easily spread the infection, causing submucosal, perianal or ischioanal abscesses. If the detached bacterium travels up the vein along with improper use or no use of antibiotics, portal vein bacteremia or even sepsis can form, and liver abscess can also form. There have been reports abroad of fatal portal vein sepsis caused by prolapsed hemorrhoids.

In summary, there are many hazards of hemorrhoids, which should be taken seriously by clinical workers and every patient with hemorrhoids should be treated seriously. Patients with hemorrhoids do not need to be overly nervous. As long as early treatment and appropriate handling are carried out, all serious complications mentioned above can be avoided.