Orris
attachment
attachment

What does it looks like

analyse_media
Reading File
Finding Sources
Finding Sources
Searching Images

rectal prolapse child anus protruding mass

Reading File
Reading File
Reading File
Searching PubMed

"rectal prolapse" children management

What the image shows

This is an intraoperative/clinical photograph of the perianal region, taken with the patient prone (or in lithotomy with buttocks retracted). Key features:
  • Setting: The skin has been prepped with iodine-based antiseptic (the orange-brown staining), a green surgical drape is beneath the buttocks, and a gauze/cloth with a blue suture is visible above - consistent with an operating room or minor-procedure setting.
  • Technique: Two gloved hands are retracting the buttocks apart to expose the anus, a standard way of exposing anorectal pathology for examination or excision.
  • The finding: Protruding from the anal opening is a moist, pink-to-red, lobulated/multi-lobed, fleshy soft-tissue mass with a frilled or "grape-like" surface. It sits right at the anal verge rather than filling the whole visual field.

What this kind of appearance typically represents

Without a clinical history, biopsy, or exam under anesthesia I can't give a definitive diagnosis from a photo alone, but the appearance is classic for one of a small group of anorectal conditions that all present as a protruding perianal mass:
  • Prolapsed rectal (juvenile) polyp - described in surgical texts as a "bright red, glistening, pedunculated" lesion that prolapses through the anus during straining, most common in infants/children - Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery, p. 1424.
  • Rectal mucosal prolapse - concentric, circumferential folds of mucosa pushed out through the anus, common in toddlers and worsened by straining/constipation - Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery, p. 250.
  • Prolapsed internal hemorrhoids - typically show radial (rather than circumferential) folds, distinguishing them from true rectal prolapse - Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, p. 2175.
  • Less commonly, a cauliflower-like anal wart (condyloma acuminatum) can look similar, though those tend to be drier/verrucous rather than glistening.
Given the small size of the perineum and the setup (careful retraction, prep, single lobulated lesion at the anal margin), this looks most consistent with a prolapsing anorectal polyp or mucosal prolapse being assessed/prepared for excision, but that needs to be confirmed by the treating surgeon with direct exam, proctoscopy, and histology of the excised tissue - biopsy is required for any protruding rectal/anal mass, since size and appearance alone cannot exclude malignant change (a 2025 systematic review noted rectal prolapse can occasionally be the first presentation of colorectal cancer, though this is far more relevant to adult patients, PMID 40148836).
If you can share the clinical context (age of patient, duration, whether it prolapses only with straining and reduces spontaneously, any bleeding), I can narrow the differential further.
This is a shared conversation. Sign in to Orris to start your own chat.