There are a variety of different treatment options for hemorrhoid patients. What treatment is recommended usually varies according to the severity of the symptoms. Some patients can get excellent results with just dietary changes while other patients may require a more aggressive treatment option such as surgery. Doppler-guided hemorrhoid arterial ligation (DG-HAL) is a relatively new treatment, but it showing some excellent results in recent testing. It was developed by a Japanese surgeon named Kazumasa Morinaga. It works as well, if not better, than other treatments currently in use and it is FDA approved.

This Doppler is the same Doppler that you'll often see used to forecast the weather. It's simply an ultrasound type device that allows a doctor to quickly locate veins that have hemorrhoids. After the veins are located the blood flow to the hemorrhoid is cut off with a quick stitch, once the blood flow is cut off, the hemorrhoid simply shrivels up and will no longer cause problems. This procedure allows for a quick recovery, very little pain and a minimum of side effects. Most patients can be back to all their normal activities within 2-3 days, plus this procedure has the added benefit of being able to be performed on an outpatient basis.

When compared to rubber band ligation, currently the most popular hemorrhoid treatment, 18 separate clinical trials reported that that pain rate was much lower with DG-HAL. These trials showed that 13% of patients had pain after a rubber ligation and 40% of these patients also required retreatment. Compare this to only 6% of DG-HAL patients reporting pain and only 9% of these patients requiring retreatment after 18 months.

In fact the results were so favorable that the doctors who were involved in this study ended up making DG-HAL their own personal choice for their patients with Grade II and III hemorrhoids. They had actually wanted to conduct further studies comparing rubber band ligation to DG-HAL, but because their results were so favorable and received a lot of press, they couldn't find enough patients willing to undergo rubber band ligation, so no further studies were conducted.