The Proctology Institute Dr. Padrón was created in 1990 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. At the beginning it was a medical office that nowadays, after thirty years of growth, has become the point of reference of Proctology in the Canaries and offers two big specialized centers to its patients for diagnosis and treatment of problems of anus and rectum: one center is situated in La Laguna (Tenerife) and the other one is situated in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. These two centers have received more than 50.000 patients from all the Canary Islands.
All the treatments are carried out with local anaestethic, that means that the surgical interventions are minimally invasive and affordable for everyone. Thanks to adapted techniques and some own processes, the medical results of the treatments are excelent. One other strength of the center is the friendly behaviour to its patients thanks to a professional medical staff with enough experience and sensibility towards a situation, the proctology disease, that is usually associated with embarrasment. The Proctology Institute Dr. Padrón knows how to treat you. If you have any anal problem, click here and ask for an appointment.
What is proctology?
Proctology is the branch of medicine that deals with diagnosis and treatment, with or without surgery, of diseases affecting the rectum and anus as for example hemorrhoids, anal fissures, anal or sacral fistulas, abscesses, genital warts, thrombosed hemorrhoid, anal itching and proctalgia fugax.
Around 20 million people suffer from hemorrhoids in Spain
Hemorrhoids are the result of swollen tissue inside the rectum, called mucosa. We can consider hemorrhoids like wrinkles more than veins or varicose veins. We can suppose that we suffer from hemorrhoids if we have some of the following symptoms:
- Bleeding: very red blood specially when having a bowel movement.
- Prolapse: the patient feels that, when having a bowel movement, there is something that slip out of the rectum and comes back inside spontaneously or the patient himself fixes it.
- Anal pain: it happens specially after having some particular irritating subtances such as alcohol, pepper, coffee, etc. These substances can produce pain but they are not the cause of hemorrhoids that are the result of constipation, sedentary life, some kind of diet, and long straining associated with bad habits such as reading in the bathroom.
Video: How are hemorrhoids treated?
In general, the treatments against the hemorroids can be therapeutic or surgical. The therapeutic ones are those based on traditional medical treatments such as an ointment, specific medication or diet changes. We use this kind of treatments for hemorrhoids of grade 1 or 2.
However, therapeutic treatments are not alwalys enough and, according to experts, around 5 or 10% of people that suffer from hemorroids will need a surgical intervention to remove them effectively. For this reason, sometimes grade 1 and 2 hemorrhoids need to be treated with a rubber band ligation, a painless and outpatient procedure that doesn’t imply sickness abscence.
On the other hand, there are different surgical procedures that can be used in order to remove grade 3 and 4 hemorrhoids. Since these kind of hemorrhoids are of bigger grade, a more complexed intervent is required, so they are treated in different stages in order to prevent an agressive intervent. That’s why hemorrhoids are removed in several surgical outpatient sessions, with local anaestethic and without requiring sickness absence, in order to avoid a more agressive and painful intervent.
Fistulas and anal abscesses
An anal fistula is an abnormal communication between the internal part of the anal canal and the perianal skin. Usually this disease is the result of an infection produced in the anal glands that are located between the anus and the rectum. The fistulas can be classificated in three different types depending on the area where they are situated: anal fistula, perianal fistula or sacral fistula.
Anal fistulas often lead to pus infections known as abscesses, infected cavities filled with pus near the anus or rectum. Usually the abscesses are caused by fistulas but not all the fistulas produce abscesses.
The main difference between anal, perianal and sacral fistulas is their origin. Anal and perianal fistulas are caused by an infection of anal glands that create a tunnel from the internal part of the anal canal towards the skin. On the other hand, sacral fistulas usally are caused by ingrown hair or by obstruction of hair follicles. They are in fact underskin pilonidal cysts that have hair inside and usually cause inflammation and infections that finally drain and lead to an abscess.
Video: How to treat fistulas?
If we are dealing with small fistulas, the abscess is drained and the fistulous tract is lay-opened in order to resolve the problem permanently. This surgical technique is carried out by opening the tract of the fistula completely so it can heal from inside to outside.
For the anal or perianal fistulas, sometimes it is necessary to place a seton, a kind of elastic thread, throughout the fistula in order to keep it opened and, after a period of time, the thread is removed and the fistulous tract is treated by surgery
Advantages of outpatient surgeries and local anaesthetic
Most of medical centers use to treat fistulas with complex and agressive surgeries that imply long and painful post-operative periods. In the Proctolgy Institute Dr. Padrón, we treat fistulas with outpatient surgery and local anaestheticthat are not invasive and does not imply any hospital admission. This means for the patient a painless post-operation period that involve a very short time of sickness abscence, just only one or two days.
The key point of the treatment of fistulas is a good monitoring of the intervent in order to be sure that the fistula heals correctly. This is why, in the Proctology Institute Dr Padrón, we carry out several monitorings and check-ups to keep the wound under observation and check that is healing properly and permanently.
What is an anal fissure and how to treat it?
An anal fissure is a wound in the skin lining of the anus, usually caused by constipation but also by diarrhea. This small wound causes the contraction of some circle fibers known as internal sphincter. This contraction causes pain and does not let the wound to get healed. The anal fissure usually is completely benign but it is often very painful.
The most used operation to treat fissures in the Proctology Institute Dr. Padrón is the lateral internal sphincterotomy. It is an operation carried out with local anaesthetic and consists of cutting the aforementioned fibers in order to create, indirectly, the progressive dissapearance of pain and the healing of the fissure.
Other proctologic disorders or diseases
Although the most common proctologic diseases are hermorrhoids, fistulas, abscesses and fissures, the Proctology Institute Dr Padrón also treats other diseases such as:
– Condyloma or genital warts
– Thrombosed hemorrhoids
– Levator syndrome
– Proctalgia fugax
– Anal itching (pruritus ani)
INSTITUTO PROCTOLÓGICO DR. PADRÓN
The Proctology Institute Dr. Padrón has two medical centers: one situated in La Laguna (Tenerife) and other one situated in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Both are perfectly equipped from a point of view of professional staff and medical resources to make our patients have the highest level of satisfaction. Both medical staffs deal only with Proctology so they are specialised in the area of the rectum and the anus. This means that all the doctors are experts and know perfectly all the techniques for the treatment of hemorrhoids, fistulas, anal fissures, etc.
Besides, other important strength of this Institute is the way that the operations are carried out: with local anaesthetic. This means that the intervents are not complicated and implies a post-operative period which is almost painless. This specialization together with the high level of efficiency makes the Proctology Institute Dr Padrón the point of reference of Proctology in Canary Islands.