An Overview of Haemorrhoids (Bawaseer) with Surgical Interventions from Ancient to Modern Era

Abstract

The word “haemorrhoid” is derived from the Greek “haema”= blood, and “rhoos”= flowing, and was originally used by Hippocrates to describe the flow of blood from the veins of the anus. Commonly, in society it is known as piles, the word pile is derived from Latin, meaning a ball or a mass. In Unani literature, hemorrhoids are known as “Bawaseer”. It is the plural of baasoor, which means wart or polyp like swelling. Haemorrhoids or piles are commonly known, to plagued humankind since ancient times. On the day of the decisive battle at Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte was in pain because of a severe case of Thrombosed haemorrhoids, which impaired his battlefield conduct. Although it has been stated that 50% of the population will experience symptomatic haemorrhoid disease at some point in their lives, the peak incidence of symptomatic disease seems to be between the ages of 45–65 years. Exact causes of haemorrhoids are still unknown, but some predisposing factors may aid the disease. Haemorrhoids can be managed by conservative, nonoperative or operative measures depending upon the condition and severity. Unani System of Medicine has also a comprehensive description of the management of haemorrhoids. Moreover, the conventional surgical techniques used nowadays are only the modification of already described procedures in Unani literature. Therefore, it is attempted to correlate the concepts of Bawaseer in Unani and Conventional system of medicine.

Keywords: Haemorrhoids, Bawaseer, Unani, thrombosed

Cite this Article Junaid Nazir Dandroo, Mehjabeen Fatimah, Saiyad Shah Alam et al. An Overview of Haemorrhoids (Bawaseer) with Surgical Interventions from Ancient to Modern Era. Research and Reviews: A Journal of Ayurvedic Science, Yoga and Naturopathy. 2017; 4(3): 23–30p.