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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffTreatment of a rectal ulcer depends on your symptoms and whether you also have rectal prolapse. If you don't have any symptoms or your symptoms are mild, treating and preventing constipation, such as by increasing fiber and fluid intake, often improve symptoms and heal the ulcer.
If your symptoms are more severe or you have rectal prolapse, other therapies may include:
- Enemas. Sucralfate enemas contain an aluminum salt and work by coating the ulcer and creating a barrier against irritants that may allow the ulcer to heal. Corticosteroid enemas and 5-aminosalicylic acid enemas also may help decrease inflammation and aid ulcer healing.
- Biofeedback. Using feedback from a variety of monitoring procedures and equipment, a biofeedback specialist will try to teach you to control certain involuntary body responses, such as straining during defecation. This therapy may need to be repeated within a few years of your initial course of treatment.
- Surgery. Surgery is especially useful when the condition is recurrent and accompanied by rectal prolapse. Surgery may include removal of the lesions. It may also include fecal diversion, which is the use of an ostomy — a surgically created opening in which a portion of the colon above the rectum is brought to the abdominal surface. There, stool is expelled into a pouch or bag that you empty.
Rectopexy, another surgical option, corrects rectal prolapse by using stitches to secure the rectum in its anatomically correct position.
