Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £1million for a new haemorrhoid surgery treatment. 

The new research, named the ORION trail using radiofrequency ablation will be led by researchers in partnership with the University of Sheffield.

The trial will assess whether radiofrequency ablation is effective and works just as well as other surgical methods for treating haemorrhoids and will investigate whether it is better in terms of pain and recurrence. 

Professor Steven Brown, a Consultant Surgeon at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: “We hope that the trial will potentially demonstrate an effective and less painful treatment for haemorrhoids, which will affect as many as one in four of the population.” 

The trial will be funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will include 300 participants across 16 hospitals in the UK.

Radiofrequency ablation uses radio waves to shrink the haemorrhoid as opposed to other methods that tie off or cut the pile.

The trial follows from the 2016 Hubble trial which investigated which was the optimal surgical intervention for low grade haemorrhoids.