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Clinical features

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

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

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