Risk Factors Of Chronic Functional Constipation

Good evening!

I’m Dr. Vijay Arora. I’m a surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. I’m the head of the department of general and laparoscopic surgery.

I also run a clinic which is called the Colo-Rectal Clinic. Colon and rectum are the parts of our body related to passing stool. The commonest problem the patients come to me with related to these is constipation. I’m going to talk to you today about constipation. Everyone has felt constipated once in a lifetime but when it is a temporary phenomenon when one day or two days after fasting or after other reasons reasons of some ailment like fever you are constipated that will get relieved when you come to normal lifestyle. But when constipation is persistent then most patients come and say I have constipation. It is probably because of piles or they may be having painful defecation that means pain when passing stool and that may be the cause of constipation. So constipation with or without pain need to have evaluation. It is not alright to take over the counter treatment that I had ispaghol, I had hard, I had any other medication that somebody prescribed. When you have a chronic constipation particularly if you have pain or you need to strain to pass stool then you must have the colorectal examination conducted on you. Without examining the area of your passage where the stool comes out from the diagnosis of piles or other associated causes cannot be made. Sometimes tests are also conducted but the first examination is a clinical examination which you must do. Most of the patients feel I have piles and the piles are either bleeding not bleeding, painful not painful, but we when we examine a patient find that there may be many diseases in that area. You may be having a cut in the margin of the anal canal which is the passage, it is possibly fissures or you may actually be having piles. Sometimes the reason may be more sinister and dangerous. You may be having cancer. Without examination you tend to take certain medications without knowing whether or not they are right for constipation. Today you are told there are many medication available over the counter take this and your constipation is gone. But if it is not gone then it is imperative it is necessary that you have examination. One of the reason for constipation in females particularly is that after child birth or even just with aging. The area of the anal canal which is the passage for stool becomes tight or starts to protrude out which we called prolapse. When you have a prolapse it may not be visible to your eye, it may be only inside and can only be diagnosed by some investigation. I get patients who come to me and say I have constipation I have seen my surgeon he says you don’t have piles I don’t know why constipation is not going that is where specialized X-Ray and MRI tests are done and we can come to a diagnosis.

My suggestion to you today is do not ignore constipation or what you called piles. Have it evaluate it, have it screened as well as investigated, come to a diagnosis and get the treatment. Thank you!