Bleeding Per Rectum

Presence of visible blood in stools is a matter of concern and one of the multiple causes can be responsible for the same:

• Hemorrhoids (piles).
• Anal fissure or fistula.
• Bacterial or amebic Dysentery.
• Inflammatory bowel diseases like Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s diseases.
• Colo-rectal polyps.
• Rectal or colonic malignancy.

• First of all, do no panic.
• See a doctor.
• If you feel dizzy, collapse blackouts in front of your eyes or feel generally unwell then consider calling for an immediate help as this might be a heavy bleeding.
• Another feature which should raise alarms are large quantity of blood, tarry black color stool (malena) which indicates heavy bleeding.
• However, as in most of the cases if the bleeding is mild, make an appointment with your doctor soon.

• A doctor will perform a complete history taking.
• Apart from an examination of your vitals like pulse, blood pressure, and abdominal examination, many times per rectal digital examination is done.
• If required proctoscopy is done.
• Many times a Colonoscopy or Sigmoidoscopy is done in search of the site of bleeding.
• In very difficult cases rarely a CT angiogram is done to locate the site of bleeding.

• Although minor causes like hemorrhoids and fissure are treated by medicines sometimes surgery is required.
• Colonoscopy has multiple therapeutic options to stop bleeding which includes glue injection therapy, heater probe coagulation, argon plasma coagulation, injection of a sclerosant solution.
• In some cases, surgery may also be required.