Anus and rectum

Organs such as your stomach or bowel do not show up very well on a normal X-ray. To closely examine these areas on an X-ray, your consultant may recommend a barium meal or enema.

A colonoscopy is a procedure that uses a thin, flexible tube with a camera to examine the inner lining of the whole large bowel, including the rectum and colon. It is used to investigate symptoms such as abdominal pain, rectal bleeding or changes in bowel habit, and to identify ulcers, polyps, inflammation or tumours, with biopsies and polyp removal possible during the same procedure.

Find out what colorectal (bowel cancer) screening involves, who it's for, how to do the home test, and what your results could mean for you.

A diagnostic endoscopy is an examination to look at your internal organs using an instrument called an endoscope.

An endoscopy is a medical procedure in which an instrument (an endoscope, or ‘scope’) is introduced into the body to gain a view of internal structures and organs.

A flexible sigmoidoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a thin, flexible tube with a light and camera to examine the lining of the rectum and the lower part of the colon, sending live images to a screen. It is commonly used to investigate symptoms such as unexplained rectal bleeding or to monitor conditions like inflammatory bowel disease.

If rectal pain or symptoms make examination difficult, a rectal EUA offers a gentle, effective way for our expert surgeons at Nuffield Health to investigate what’s going on and guide the right treatment for you.

A rigid sigmoidoscopy is a procedure to look at the inside your sigmoid colon (last one-third of your colon) and rectum using a small rigid telescope (proctoscope).

Virtual colonoscopy, also known as a CT colonoscopy is a diagnostic technique that examines the large bowel (colon) and rectum.

Abdominoperineal resection (also known as APR) is a procedure to remove your rectum, anal canal and lower bowel. A permanent colostomy (stoma) is created to allow for the passage of stool.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a condition affecting the lower bowel or rectum, anterior resection surgery may help by removing the diseased section and restoring healthy bowel function.

If your haemorrhoids are itchy, causing you pain, and accompanied with bright-red bleeding, then you might want to consider a haemorrhoidectomy. Our expert surgeons at Nuffield Health remove the swollen tissue and help restore comfort, especially when symptoms are persistent or severe.

If you have severe a bowel disease such as colon cancer or ulcerative colitis, you may need to have your large intestine (colon and rectum) removed. An Ileal pouch (or J pouch) procedure will help restore more normal control and passing of stool.

Rectal prolapse occurs when part or your entire rectum (last part of your colon where stool is stored) falls out of your anus (back passage).

A restorative proctocolectomy is a surgical procedure that removes the entire large bowel (colon and rectum) but avoids the need for a permanent stoma (ostomy bag) by creating an internal pouch from the small intestine to allow you to pass stool via the anus.

Living with haemorrhoids can be uncomfortable and frustrating. Our experts at Nuffield Health offer rubber band ligation - a simple, non‑surgical way to shrink the swollen tissue and ease symptoms quickly.

During this procedure, haemorrhoids are stapled to the inside of the rectum to reduce their blood supply and allow them to shrink.

Stapled Transanal Rectal Resection (STARR) is a minimally invasive operation to treat chronic constipation caused by a rectocele (a bulge in the bowel wall) or an internal rectal prolapse, which corrects the issue by removing the excess tissue from within the rectum.

Transanal haemorrhoidal dearterialisation (THD) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure used to treat haemorrhoids.