clinical features
Last reviewed 08/2023
Haemorrhoids often only produce intermittent symptoms. Symptomatic episodes are often precipitated by constipation. These episodes usually last from a few days to a few weeks. Often they are completely asymptomatic between episodes.
Clinical features of piles include:
- bleeding after defaecation:
- may just stain the toilet paper or streak the faeces,
- if copious it may splash around the lavatory pan
- faecal soiling
- mucus discharge
- pruritus ani
- occasionally pain:
- thrombosis may cause acute severe anal pain occasionally necessitating hospital admission
- grades 2-4 may be felt as a rectal mass