: The word “Hemorrhoids” is probably derived from the combination of Latin “hæmorrhoida -ae” (haemo (blood), rhoidae (flowing) and the Greek “Haimorrhoos”. The original “a” has been dropped to give us “Hemorrhoids”.
In the 13th century, European surgeons such as Lanfranc of Milan, Guy de Chauliac, Henri de Mondeville and John of Ardene made great progress and development of the surgical techniques.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many new surgical techniques were developed to treat the advanced hemorrhoids. In the meantime, several minimal invasive non-surgical modalities were invented to treat early stages of hemorrhoids.
1806; Using the modern era of endoscopy, Philip Bozzini, an Italian-German physician, used an aluminum tube to see the genitourinary tract. He then earned the title “The father of endoscopy”.
1835; St.Marks Hospital London was founded by Frederick Salmon providing modern hemorrhoids and fistula treatment.
1849; Introduction of anal dilation for hemorrhoids treatment.
1935; Doctors E.T.C. Milligan and C. Naughton Morgan in St.Marks Hospital London further studied the excision and ligation methods, which later became the gold standard in hemorrhoidectomy.
1950s;Ferguson modified the Milligan-Morgan procedure, and A.G. Parks’ developed his closed method surgical treatment.
1960s, Banding of larger hemorrhoids was introduced with rubber band ligation.
1970s; Non-surgical methods including cryotheraphy, diathermy, Infra-red and laser cauteries were developed for treatment.
1975; PH Lord developed his anal dilation hemorrhoid treatment method, whilst WHF Thompson postulated that hemorrhoids developed from anal cushions that are part of the normal anatomical structures.
1990s; Stapled Hemorrhoidopexy, also known as Procedure for Prolapse & Hemorrhoids (PPH) was first described by an Italian surgeon – Dr. Antonio Longo, and since then has been widely adopted to treat the grade 3 and 4 hemorrhoids. Moreover, the digitalized Infra-red coagulation (IRC) was getting popular for the treatment of early stage of hemorrhoids.
