Palliatives but No Cures

Just about the commonest complaint seen by the surgeon is one of the least talked-about but most advertised of human conditions: hemorrhoids, or piles. Last week the Federal Trade Commission decided that some clear talk was needed not only about hemorrhoids, but about the advertising claims made by manufacturers of suppositories and ointments for their treatment. These preparations, said the FTC, "at best only afford temporary relief of minor itching . . . and some types of pain." So it ordered the companies "to stop falsely advertising them as cures."

Hemorrhoids are nothing but varicose veins in the anal region. They result from greatly increased pressure in the anal veins during the muscular contractions of defecation, when portions of a vein break through the skin or other tissues that normally confine them. Famed Harvard Surgeon Francis D. Moore (TIME cover, May 3, 1963) notes in the textbook Surgery: "In a sophisticated population, sensitive to their own complaints and careful of personal hygiene, one rarely sees the tremendously advanced hemorrhoids that are common in a more careless social stratum." But a woman is liable to develop hemorrhoids during pregnancy because of increased abdominal pressure. And in both sexes, some enlargement of anal veins is so common with the passage of years that Dr. Moore views it as "a normal anatomic variant of aging." Piles may be either internal or external, or a combination of both.

Sometimes, but seldom, a hemorrhoid heals itself through the development of a blood clot, which shuts down the vein. Surgery in moderately severe cases is minor and like a treatment for varicose veins of the leg: a chemical is injected to harden the vein's walls and make it close down. In more severe cases, part of the vein and surrounding tissues must be cut out. Operations used to be dreaded because of infections and slow healing. Now they are safer, thanks to antibiotics, and healing is quicker.

Best known of the four companies ordered by the FTC to stop claiming that their medications will shrink hemorrhoids or obviate the need for surgery was American Home Products Corp., maker of Preparation H. The company planned to appeal to the courts. Three smaller companies conceded that the effects of their products were similar to those of Preparation H and may also appeal or seek reargument before the commission.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.