Gastrointestinal
Circa 1550 BCE — Ebers Papyrus, Ancient Egypt
Hemorrhoids, recorded as a source of human suffering for millennia, occupied a surprisingly prominent place in ancient medical literature and were treated with elaborate and often painful remedies across cultures. Historical physicians debated their origins extensively, variously attributing them to diet, sedentary life, humoral imbalance, and occupation. The condition's long documented history makes it one of the most continuously treated ailments in the written medical record.
Historical Narrative
The oldest surviving medical texts already treated hemorrhoids as a familiar and well-established affliction. The Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical document dating to approximately 1550 BCE, contained specific instructions for treating what were clearly described as painful rectal conditions, recommending preparations made from plant fibers and acacia leaves applied as suppositories. Egyptian physicians of this era conceptualized such conditions through their understanding of bodily channels, believing that vessels throughout the body could become blocked or inflamed with harmful substances.
Ancient Mesopotamian medical tablets similarly recorded treatments for rectal complaints, and Assyrian healers employed a combination of herbal poultices and ritual incantations, reflecting a medical tradition that intertwined the physical and the spiritual. These early practitioners had no knowledge of vascular anatomy in the modern sense but nonetheless recognized the condition as involving swollen, bleeding tissue in the lower body.
Hippocrates, writing in the fourth century BCE, devoted considerable attention to hemorrhoids and described surgical interventions involving cauterization with hot irons, as well as ligation techniques in which the tissue was tied off to restrict blood flow. The Hippocratic corpus framed hemorrhoids within humoral theory, suggesting that the body sometimes directed excess bile or phlegm toward the rectal vessels as a form of natural purging, and that completely eliminating hemorrhoids was occasionally considered medically unwise, as they were thought to serve a useful evacuative function.
The Roman physician Galen, working in the second century CE, elaborated significantly on Hippocratic ideas, affirming the view that hemorrhoids could act as beneficial outlets for corrupt humors. This perspective proved extraordinarily durable and shaped European medical thinking for well over a thousand years. Galen described dietary modifications, sitz baths in warm water, and manual reduction procedures, many of which persisted in various forms through the medieval period.
Medieval Islamic physicians, including Avicenna, whose Canon of Medicine became a dominant medical text in both the Islamic world and Europe, dedicated sections to rectal conditions and catalogued treatments ranging from suppositories made of compound herbal preparations to surgical excision. Avicenna's systematic approach helped preserve and transmit Greek medical knowledge while adding his own clinical observations.
In medieval Europe, the condition was sometimes called Saint Fiacre's disease, owing to a popular legend that the seventh-century Irish monk and patron of gardeners had developed severe hemorrhoids, perhaps as divine punishment or trial. Pilgrims suffering from the affliction traveled to shrines associated with the saint, illustrating how religious and medical frameworks remained deeply intertwined throughout the medieval period.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brought increasingly anatomically grounded understanding as surgeons studied the venous structures of the rectum through dissection. John Hunter and later Frederick Salmon, who founded St. Mark's Hospital in London in 1835 specifically for the treatment of colorectal conditions, advanced surgical techniques considerably. Salmon's institution became a landmark in the organized, specialized surgical treatment of rectal disease and attracted students and observers from across Europe.
By the late nineteenth century, debates intensified among surgeons about whether operative or conservative management produced better long-term outcomes, a discussion that reflected growing interest in evidence-based comparison of surgical results and marked a transition toward more systematic clinical evaluation.
Key Historical Figures
Historical narrative only — this page describes how Hemorrhoid was understood historically. It is not medical advice and does not describe current diagnosis or treatment. Sourced from verified medical history references (NIH, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and standard medical history texts). See our medical disclaimer.