“Although extremely uncommon, severe sepsis does occur post-treatment for haemorrhoids and all surgeons who treat such patients should be aware of the potential complications and alert to their presenting features. Early presentation without evidence of tissue necrosis may be managed conservatively, although most cases are managed by means of surgery.”

“Treatments for haemorrhoids can be divided in to conservative measures such as anal hygiene and topical ointments or suppositories, and interventions.

These are either office-based such as:
-injection sclerotherapy
-rubber band ligation (RBL)
-surgical procedures.

Haemorrhoidectomy has long been the mainstay of surgical therapy, but recently new techniques have been described, principally the stapled haemorrhoidopexy or procedure for prolapsing haemorrhoids (PPH).”

“It is clear from our review that serious septic complications occur rarely after treatment for haemorrhoids, although the absolute risk is very small and difficult to quantify as it is impossible to know the numbers of people receiving treatment for haemorrhoids. It is undoubtedly true however that when they do occur they can be a devastating complication with significant risk of death”

McCloud JM, et al . Life-threatening sepsis following treatment for haemorrhoids: a systematic review. Colorectal Dis. 2006 Nov;8(9):748-55. Full Text for Emory Users