Surgical history of haemorrhoids

Abstract

For as long as man has been blessed with an anus, it is fair to assume that he has also been doubly blessed with haemorrhoids. The word "haemorrhoid" is derived from the Greek haema (blood) and rhoos (flowing), and it was probably Hippocrates (460 BC) who was the first to apply the name to the flow of blood from the veins of the anus. The term "piles" is derived from the Latin pila (a ball) and was widely used by the public at the time of John of Arderne (born AD 1307), and in his treatise of 1370 he remarks that the "common people call them piles, the aristocracy call them haemorrhoids, the French call them figs (figer, to clot), what does it matter so long as you can cure them". If only it was that simple. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.