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Had ACL Knee Surgery And Now Having Blood In Stools. Underlying Cause?
Question: Hi, my son had a reconstruve acl knee surgery about 3 weeks ago and now it has been 4 days that he has quiet an amount of very red blood in his stool. He is not in pain and says he feels fine. Should I be worried and what could the cause be? Thanks!
Brief Answer:
Can be due to pain killers he is taking.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
bleeding from somewhere close to the anus because closer the source of bleeding is to the anus, the brighter red the blood will be. If it is fresh blood and only streaks along with hard stools and pain in the anal region while defaecating, it could be because of anal fissures (injury to the mucosal lining by hard stools which bleeds). It is not likely to be related to the ACL surgery he had. Excessive pain killers can also cause such painless bleeding problem. He needs to stop all the pain killers he might be taking.
Other causes that need to be ruled out are rectal polyps and inflammatory bowel disease.
Do get a stool examination and gastroenterologist’s consultation done. Maybe a proctoscopy and colonoscopy is needed to confirm the diagnosis.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
Can be due to pain killers he is taking.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
bleeding from somewhere close to the anus because closer the source of bleeding is to the anus, the brighter red the blood will be. If it is fresh blood and only streaks along with hard stools and pain in the anal region while defaecating, it could be because of anal fissures (injury to the mucosal lining by hard stools which bleeds). It is not likely to be related to the ACL surgery he had. Excessive pain killers can also cause such painless bleeding problem. He needs to stop all the pain killers he might be taking.
Other causes that need to be ruled out are rectal polyps and inflammatory bowel disease.
Do get a stool examination and gastroenterologist’s consultation done. Maybe a proctoscopy and colonoscopy is needed to confirm the diagnosis.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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