My Experience with THD - Transanal Hemorrhoidal Dearterialization

Anyone able to read this. I would wait. I have been through the creams, gels, banding, etc...100 dollars a month in fibercon.
I wish I was back at that point. Im 45 and in otherwise good health. Dr. was considered the best.
Had THD and LIS for small fissure.
I have heard how painful the full hemectomy was so I chose this.
So far huge mistake. If your thinking of it, wait. I will keep posting and update you, but I wish I didnt do this.
35 days out.

I'm having THD in 2 days time as an outpatient in a private hospital, but on an NHS (uk) referral because my GP said they were the worst she has ever seen.
I have suffered for 10 years and it has got worse and worse. Excessive bleeding, sometime pouring into the bowl to the point where I feel dizzy; a big ring donut hanging out with is full of blood and so sore; extremely difficulty going to the toilet, and sometimes even passing wind as my ass is completely blocked up at the end; stinging pain like being stabbed with a knife that happens 2-5 times per day for 5-10 minutes each time - causing me to struggle to breathe.
I have read all your posts and appreciate that some have post op suffering worse than others, but I just can't wait to get this done in the hope of some relief. I am a single parent with 2 kids and a stressful management job. I'd like to meet someone new but I just couldn't contemplate anyone knowing how I suffer or seeing my bum!
Wish me luck! I will repost post op!

I have gone thru the same process as described by first author, with similar symptoms and overall profile. Ligation rings did not work for me, so went for THD. Recovery took a bit longer, around 10 days, with issues of bowel movement, but for th next 2-3 years all was good. Unfortunately, after 3 years symptoms gradually returned, it has been already 8 years past surgery and I'm considering repeating it, as all symptoms are back just as before THD.

Im on day 8 and still have lot of pain. Had some complications trombosis

Hello, what happend?

OK, I am a 55YO male living in Western Australia [Australia]. I have suffered with haemorrhoids for around 6 years and the last year was hell. Found the HAL-RAR procedure on "Embarrassing Bodies (UK)". This led me to research the technique. I heard that the best in Australia was in Sydney and contacted Dr. Darren Gold. I arranged from Perth to travel there to have it done. After inspection during the initial consult he suggested a different technique as my 'roids' were so large and prolapsed. He explained the TST-33 to me, and it was decided under his guidance that this would be the best for me. Less pain, much shorter healing time and higher success rate for advanced roids. That same evening the procedure was carried out. Took around 90 minutes, and after 2 hours I was in my room. From that point, the lack of pain was strange. No pain medication required AT ALL. The following morning at around 8am I was seen by Dr. Gold during his rounds. Asked if there was any bleeding or pain, I said no. I was asked if I wanted to be discharged. I left the hospital at 9am and went back to the hotel. Remember I am from West Aust, and this is in Sydney. I experienced no pain, no bleeding as such, just a little pinkish discolouration. I can not believe that anyone would put up with the daily anguish of roids when this procedure is available. It may not be for you as no 2 bums are the same, and certainly no conditions are the same, but I would confidently recommend Dr. Gold as your first point of contact or at least for a second opinion. I found that very often success is not so much the procedure done, but the performer of that procedure. Choosing the best procedure for your specific issues is also a critical part of the treatment. You need a surgeon who can select from as a wide a suite of treatments as possible. and be able to perform them competently. For me it involved a week across Australia and it was the best decision I have made. I was sold on the HAL -RAR, but it would have given me a much longer recovery period and pain. I am happy with the result and being a chicken when it comes to pretty much anything medical would do this again in a heart beat. For specifics about my procedure, you are welcome to PM me 

 ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

I had thd procedure 12/10 felt good for two weeks, but now having some prolapse and seems like i have new hemmys. also quite a bit of itching. anyone else experience the same?

I'm going to be heading in for THD Surgery in about a month's time. I made the wrong decision and read all of the Horror Stories on the Web based on people's reviews after the Surgery and wound up scaring the absolute c**p out of myself. It was only after giving myself panic attacks over the upcoming Surgery that I realized my mistake.

By reading people's reviews on here who have suffered post-operative complications I'm taking a completely skewed Sample. First, most people who have had this Surgery are not going to post a Review on it. They will simply have the Surgery and move on with life. The people who have complications are the ones that will be searching for information online and likely leave a Horror Story or two about what to expect.

Second, you have no information regarding the Sample Size of these Operations. Some people are not going to have good results following Surgery. Moreover, you have no idea as to the Anal Problems that the person had going into the Surgery and most of the people complaining you have no idea why they were suffering pain Post-Op for such lengthy periods of time. They could have developed a Fissure or something and just not note it down.

So to get a more accurate picture I started reading the Scientific Studies that you can find online where Doctors took a Sample Size and performed this Surgery on all of them and wrote down the post-operative results.

When you look at any one of the Studies like that you realize quickly how small of a chance you've got of dealing with post-operative complications because of this Surgery as opposed to how you feel after reading all the Horror Stories on this Thread.

We're not allowed to post URLs in this Thread so for those that want to look at the Study Groups simply do a Google Search and see what you come up with.

For most Studies that I've read, for Post-Operative Pain 20% of people had pain immediately following Surgery and needed Pain Killers. Of that 20%, 5% needed Pain Killers for longer than 3 days. Usually 0 - 1% of people needed Pain Killers past 10 days Post-Op.

Post-Operative Bleeding happened in about 8% of people in the Studies that I've read.

Tenesmus was reported in about 20% of people Post-Op (about the same for pain) but this seemed to always drop down to 10% at the end of the first week and completely disappeared by the end of the 3rd week. Which is what most Doctors who provide this Operation state as part of the Healing Period. Healing can last any where from 3 days to 3 weeks.

When comparing THD to the Traditional Hemorrhoidectomy the difference between Post-Operative Pain is significant. Same when compared to PPH or Stapled Hemorrhoidopexy. In fact, being that I'm in Canada, most Doctors refuse to perform the Traditional Hemorrhoidectomy unless significant External Hemorrhoids were present (the only surgical treatment for large External Hemorrhoids is to cut them off). In Canada, PPH has also been replaced with TDH because TDH has much less Post-Operative Pain and the percentage of complications following TDH Surgery is extremely low when there's all kinds of problems you could have following PPH.

"Most" of the complications arising from TDH Surgery also become more apparent when using this Operation on Stage 4 Prolapsed Hemorrhoids as opposed to Stage 3 or 2. However, most Doctors now when Operating will combine a Plexi (stitching the prolapsed Hemorrhoid Tissue) back into place after Arterial Ligation. This significantly reduces the re-occurrence of Prolapse. I'm willing to bet that the people in this Thread that are complaining about an External Hemorrhoid or something else protruding from their Anus following this Operation didn't get the Plexi performed when they probably should have.

So with those Numbers it should make a lot of people feel a lot safer if you are reading these Reviews. You have an 80% chance of not experiencing any pain Post-Op. If you do experience Pain Post-Op within 3-4 days you have a 95% chance of the pain dropping to a level where you don't need Pain Killers. If after 3-4 days you do still experience pain upon defecation then you have a 99% chance that this pain will disappear between 7-10 days.

When comparing pain in with people who have undergone PPH there is also like an 8-10% chance of having chronic pain following Surgery. The Doctor needs to know exactly what they are doing when they perform PPH because if you put the Line too high or too low it leads to a completely different set of problems.

You have a 92% chance of not having significant bleeding Post-Op. Based on this though you only have a 2% chance of needing to be readmitted to the Hospital because of Blood Loss. In some of the Studies I've read you have an 18% chance of experiencing massive blood loss following PPH Surgery and about the same (18-20% chance) following Traditional Surgery.

Unfortunately, you do have an 80% chance of having Tenesmus following Surgery. This is the feeling that you need to have a Bowel Movement really badly when you don't need to. This lends itself to a feeling of Urgency even when all you've got built up inside of you is a very little bit of Stool or even Gas. This is what you've read in these Reviews about people needing to use the Toilet 8 times or more a day. The Urgency that people talk about saying that they feel that they only have a minute or two to find a toilet after the urge hits. This is also what people in these posts are reporting as feeling incredibly backed up and needing to take drastic measures to have their first Bowel Movement following Surgery.

Staying with Tenesmus, keep in mind that many people, even with Laxatives, experience constipation for 1-5 days when waking up from Anesthesia and that this gets worse when you are taking large amounts of Pain Killers since Opiates slow your GI Tract to a crawl.

You should also know that with Tenesmus you simply have the Urge to have a Bowel Movement immediately but when factoring in fecal incontinence there is pretty much a 0% chance of that happening. Meaning that you can hold it till you find a Toilet and you will be able to hold it for longer and longer as you proceed past the point of the Operation.

When you compare Tenesmus and Fecal Incontinence in with PPH the amount of people experiencing it is much higher than THD and there are like 8% of people that actually wind up with Fecal Incontinence.

For me, after doing all this Reading, I feel a lot more confident approaching this Surgery than I did before. Right now my life is pretty much a living Hell. Every Bowel Movement hurts, I always feel like I've got to have a Bowel Movement, the amount of pressure in my Rectum is also putting pressure on my bladder so I've got to Pee like every 20 minutes. Also, the only position that I seem to be comfortable in for a long period of time now is on my back in bed. It's February 7th today and I've been pretty much on Bed Rest since the beginning of 2016. I'm just trying to keep myself calm long enough now to go through with this Surgery. Every day is such a Challenge that I'm absolutely exhausted right now. I just need to get this Surgery over with so I can start feeling better.

This is a great post - your stats but it perfectly into context.
has my appointment with the consultant this morning and waiting for date for my THD. Anyone from North West area in the UK had this?

Thanks, I figured I needed to see a Proper Study done after reading all these Horror Stories so spent like 4 hours Friday reading over whatever Study I could get my hands on.

The interesting thing, which I'm not sure if 98% of the people who posted on here knew or not, is that the whole 48 hours and you'll be fine claim even TDH America doesn't make any more. Most people are good after 4 days. Most people return to work within 7 to 10 days. Sometimes you have pain which sticks around for 5 days or so and you could possibly have Tenesmus stick around for 2-3 weeks.

The thing is that I already have a great deal of pain after every Bowel Movement and I've been dealing with Tenesmus daily for a number of months. There is just so much pressure in my Anal Canal that any thing going through hurts and you can never tell when you have to fart or poop or if it's just resting pressure and you don't have to do any thing but endure it.

I'm going through THD in order to stop the Pain and Tenesmus. Since I'm already completely swollen down there then yeah I expect some pain and probably quite a bit of Tenesmus for the next few weeks. But then it's over with. By the end of 3 weeks things should have improved by like 95% than what they are now. There's even studies done going out as far as 3 years now studying TDH and even if you have a bad prolapse of tissue, not just from Hemorrhoids, if your Doctor sutures you up right and does a Mucoplexy on the Prolapsed Tissue that's left after the Ligations then 3 years later people are still happy with their Surgery.

I go for a Consultation with my CRS this Thursday. I can't wait to finally have this treated because the pain and the tenesmus that I currently have are driving me nuts. If things get a little bit worse for 1-3 weeks then that's fine because I've been dealing with things at this level now for months.

How did your Appointment with the Consultant go? What exactly do they make you do during the Appointment?

Hi..saw my gp four weeks ago who got me a referral to a colorectal consultant who examined me and explained the options. I'm having a examination under general anesthetic and then they are going to do thd or rubber band if they think it may be suitable. Was in and out in15 mins. Waiting time is around 8 weeks I was told. Had hems for 15 years and it's getting to the point where i just feel swollen down there. A bit nervous about being put to sleep more than anything. I think your right about people who have a successful surgery not bothering to leave posts as they move on where as people with bad surgeries are trawling the net looking for reassurances that it will get better soon.

Where are you located? I'm in Ottawa, Ontario Canada and that's the same process I'm going through. From the point where I saw my GP to the point where I'm having a Consult with a CRS (This Thursday) I had to wait 6 weeks.

I'm hoping I don't have to wait too much longer past this to get the Treatment.

You still have to wait another 8 weeks to have your Treatment?

Let's make a deal... after Surgery we wait 5 days to post any thing here unless you are one of the few that has NO pain following Surgery. I'm expecting to deal with pain and other difficulties for a few weeks after Surgery.

I'm in the UK. Obviously we have NHS which is free and there is a waiting list. The 8 weeks is a guide which I think they just tell everyone. Could be sooner could be later if there is suddenly a rush of people with hems requiring this surgery!
Happy with that deal..will keep a look out!!

I saw the Colorectal Surgeon on Thursday and he said that he's going to treat my Internal Hemorrhoids with Rubber Band Ligation. He said that he feels confident that they can be treated this way even if it takes 6 Sessions to treat them. Each Session will be done 4-5 weeks apart. He placed One Band on during Thursdays Consultation.

I'm not exactly happy with this because I was hoping for a faster solution to my problem. I'm so damned uncomfortable at the moment. The pressure pain from my Hemorrhoids already is extreme. Added to that the pressure pain from the Bandings and I'm having trouble getting out of bed. I just feel like I have to Poop soooooooooo damned badly that I'm not even sure when I actually have to go versus when it's just the normal pressure pain. Kind of praying that this will go away soon rather than 8 months down the lane.

I even told the Doctor that I would rather he just cut them all out immediately with a Scalpel rather than to subject me to months of Rubber Bands. He said the Rubber Bands will work with a sliver of complications as opposed to any type of Surgery. That he would only consider Surgery if after a number of Sessions he doesn't see any improvement.

As a side note, the Banding did not hurt me whatsoever when I had it done. To be honest the following day was the best that I had felt in months and I even traveled across the City by Bus to get some Errands completed.

After running those Errands though I passed a huge amount of mucus with what looked to me to be a blood clot. I called the Nurse and she said that it's likely that that was exactly what it was which means that the Rubber Band Ligation is working. It was really only the following day that the Pressure in my Rectum and lower left abdomen jumped up to a 7 or 8 on the Discomfort scale.