An Experience and An Opinion Bhanu R Shah Hon. Surgeon, Bhatia General Hospital, Mumbai 400 007.
Haemorrhoidal disease is the commonest and oldest malady that afflicts mankind.
The controversies that exist about its nature and the best method of its treatment only indicates that we are still not sure as to what are haemorrhoids, why do they occur, and what is the best method to treat them. Common impression is that no treatment is totally satisfactory and most methods have some unacceptable morbidity and annoying failures. It seems that the last word has not been spoken yet. After examining over 25,000 patients and operating on about 12,000 patients I feel that almost everybody is right. The modalities of treating haemorrhoids, over last 3000 years have remained more or less same with scientific refinements which appear to be 'changes'.