Treatment for: Chronic hemorrhoids
Procedures offered: Hemorrhoidal artery embolization
Half of all Americans will experience hemorrhoids in their lifetimes. For most, hemorrhoids will go away on their own or with diet changes, topical treatments, medications or supplements. For some, they can also persist and cause bleeding, itching and painful bowel movements.
If conservative treatments have failed and symptoms persist, a new and minimally invasive procedure called hemorrhoidal artery embolization is available. This procedure is typically recommended for patients with grade 1 to 3 internal hemorrhoids who have not responded to conservative treatment. It is safe, effective and offers comparable outcomes to surgery, but with less pain.
HAE is performed by an interventional radiologist who inserts a tiny catheter into an artery in your upper thigh, and then uses medical imaging to guide it through the body’s blood vessels to the rectal artery. Special coils are inserted into the artery to cut off the blood supply to the hemorrhoid, causing it to shrink. The success rate for this procedure is greater than 90%.
