Select your text size for this site here: Normal Text Medium Text Large Text

Abdominal Adhensions

Adhesions can form wherever we heal from injury, surgery, or inflammation. Abdominal adhesions join structures with strong glue-like bonds that can last a lifetime. Adhesions can form wherever we heal from injury, surgery, or inflammation. Abdominal adhesions join structures with strong glue-like bonds that can last a lifetime.

Abdominal adhesions refer to scarring or tissue repair that occurs anywhere in the abdomen. They form as the first step in the healing process after any surgery, trauma, infection, or inflammation. Wherever they form, adhesions join structures with strong glue-like bonds that can last a lifetime (see our general adhesions page for more detail.)

The abdomen contains several major organs, including those which digest food, create or filter blood, or assist elimination. Abdominal adhesions frequently occur within the 7½ to 12 feet length (Abdominal Imaging, 1984) of the small intestines. To maintain its length in this small area, the small bowel has dozens of loops and folds. These help absorb nutrients en route from the stomach to the large intestines. However, the close sinews of these folds are perfect places for abdominal adhesions to form.

When adhesions form around the abdomen, intestines, or digestive tract, dysfunction such as constipation or abdominal pain may result. Abdominal adhesions can contribute to irritable bowel syndrome, or cause total blockage of the intestines. Since the patient cannot eat or eliminate food, this blockage is considered a life-threatening condition and must be treated by a physician.


Treating Abdominal Adhesions with Surgery

Lysis of abdominal adhesions involves surgery and anesthesia.Lysis of abdominal adhesions involves surgery and anesthesia.

Until recently, lysis of adhesions was the only choice medical science offered to treat abdominal adhesions. This involves cutting or burning the abdominal adhesions under general anesthesia, via laparoscopy or laparotomy (open surgery).

While lysis of abdominal adhesions can be effective, surgery has two major drawbacks:

  1. it carries risks from anesthesia and infection, and
  2. despite the best skills of the finest surgeon, the body creates more abdominal adhesions as it heals from the surgery designed to remove them.

Lancet: The British Journal of Surgery reported that 67% to 93% of patients developed adhesions following open abdominal surgery. Another study in that same journal reported that 35% of all open abdominal or pelvic surgery patients were readmitted to the hospital more than twice to treat post-surgical adhesions during the 10 years after their original surgery. Thus, abdominal surgery itself has been implicated as a major cause of adhesion formation and many patients become trapped in a cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery – with no end in sight.


Treating Abdominal Adhesions with Clear Passage Therapies ®

Belinda Wurn, PT treats a patient with her manual physical therapy which has been shown to reduce adhesions, decrease pain, and improve function, in peer-reviewed medical journals. Belinda Wurn, PT treats a patient with her manual physical therapy which has been shown to reduce adhesions, decrease pain, and improve function, in peer-reviewed medical journals.

We know abdominal adhesions well. We faced this situation 20 years ago when the physical therapist director of Clear Passage Therapies®, Belinda Wurn, developed severe adhesions after pelvic surgery and radiation therapy to her abdomen. Unable to work due to the pain, and having seen the devastating and debilitating effects of abdominal adhesions in her own patients, she was determined to find a non-surgical way to address abdominal adhesions.

With her husband, massage therapist Larry Wurn, Belinda took a much deeper look at the etiology and biomechanics of adhesion formation. They found that the chemical bonds that attached each of the tiny collagen fibers to its neighbor appeared to dissipate or dissolve when placed under sustained pressure over time. With this knowledge, they developed the Wurn Technique® to unravel the bonds between the crosslinks that comprise adhesions.

The “hands-on” work practiced at Clear Passage Therapies® clinics is designed to reduce or eliminate adhesions, crosslink by crosslink. It has been shown in peer-reviewed medical journals to reduce adhesions, decrease pain, and improve soft tissue mobility, without the risks of surgery or drugs.

Visit our “what treatment is like” web page for more information, or click the link at the bottom of this page now, to complete a medical history questionnaire and apply for a free, in-depth consultation.