Hemorrhoids

The patients with routine, easiest-to-treat hemorrhoids average 1.25 office visits, 0.80 prescriptions, and 1.38 medical/surgical procedures during the course of a year. About 63.9% of all PTEs were treated without the use of prescription drugs. This patient group did not receive any hospital admissions or professional inpatient services. Hemorrhoid surgery was performed at an average rate of 1.37 times per PTE on an out-patient basis. Seventy-two percent of the overall medical charges for hemorrhoid treatment are direct surgical charges. Of the PTEs treated with a single drug group, only 1.5% are treated with a prescription laxative. However, the use of OTC stool softeners and laxatives were not measured in this analysis. Thus, an exact measurement of cost savings associated with appropriate use of softeners/laxatives for the prevention of recurrent hemorrhoids could not be determined. Considering the potential cost savings of using laxatives for prevention of hemorrhoids, further investigation of the prescribing patterns of this specialty may prove useful.