Relationship between haemorrhoidal grade and toilet habits

Abstract

PURPOSE: Haemorrhoids are defined as the distal displacement and venous distention of the normal hemorrhoidal cushions. Multiple factors have been claimed to be causes of hemorrhoidal development, but the exact pathophysiology is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to assess how common is the habit to spend a long time on the toilet in patients seen for hemorrhoidal disease. Our hypothesis is that haemorrhoids could be significantly associated with a long sitting time because this practice contributes to the weakening and then dilatation of the hemorrhoidal cushions.

METHODS: The survey was conducted from April 2019 to June 2019. The study group consisted of 52 adult non-obese patients with diagnosed internal or external haemorrhoids. These patients have been asked to fill an anonymous short questionnaire. We divided the group into four classes and we calculated the mean time spent on the toilet for each group. Then we realized a plot to assess a relationship among these two variables.

RESULTS: We found that the two studied variables (time spent on the toilet and degree of haemorrhoids) seemed to be linked by a linear association (R2=0.95).

CONCLUSION: The results obtained in our preliminary study encourage us to continue this work, increasing the number of patients. If our supposition should be confirmed by further studies, we could say that toilet habits modification should be advised to any patients with any degree of haemorrhoids, as a part of treatment and as a preventive measure.