My Rectal Prolapse Is Getting Worse: Can You Help?

In an ideal world, organs located inside your body should stay there. If you’ve developed rectal prolapse, however, there’s one body part that’s not cooperating as your rectum exits your anus sporadically.

These days, the problem is less sporadic and more permanent, and your rectal prolapse is causing some serious quality-of-life and comfort issues.

Rectal prolapse isn’t all that uncommon — it affects 2.5 people out of every 1,000 — which means the team here at Fairfax Colon & Rectal Surgery has a good deal of experience in resolving the issue.

Here, we review some of your treatment options for rectal prolapse so that you have a better idea about what lies ahead.

Rectal prolapse — a progressive problem

Before we get into your treatment options for rectal prolapse, we want to quickly review what we’re up against.

As we’re sure you know, rectal prolapse is a condition in which your rectum exits your anus. At first, the prolapse often occurs when you have a bowel movement or do something else that creates that same pressure in your lower abdomen.

Over time, the occasional prolapse becomes more constant and even standing up for longer periods can push your rectum out. While the prolapse is nuisance enough, this condition can also lead to:

• Fecal incontinence, which affects up to 75% of people with rectal prolapse
• An uncomfortable bulge around your anus
• Anal pain
• Itching around your anus

There’s another condition that shares many of these symptoms — hemorrhoids — so it’s important that you come see us so that we can positively identify what’s behind your symptoms.

Treatment options for rectal prolapse

Whatever the degree of your rectal prolapse, it’s important to consider that the condition will not get better on its own. In fact, as we outlined above, rectal prolapse is progressive and the amount of tissue that protrudes will increase over time.

So, if you want to remedy your rectal prolapse, surgery is your next step and one that’s firmly in our wheelhouse. Depending upon the degree of your rectal prolapse, we figure out which surgery might work best. 

For example, we can go through your bottom and better anchor your rectum so it doesn’t drop down. We may also use a mesh to keep your rectum from collapsing.

Another approach is going in through your abdomen — we only make tiny incisions and use laparoscopic surgical tools to do the work. If we use this method called a rectopexy, we attach your rectum to your sacrum. We may also remove a small piece of your colon to encourage better bowel movements. 

Historically, a rectopexy garners fantastic results, and less than 10% of patients redevelop rectal prolapse sometime after the procedure.

To determine which technique is best for your rectal prolapse, we invite you to contact one of our offices in Fairfax, Fair Oaks, Alexandria, Gainesville, Woodbridge, or Lansdowne, Virginia, to schedule a consultation.