Overcome Your Surgical and Adhesion Pain Naturally

Post-Surgical Adhesions

Muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissues are intimately involved structures within the body. When any area of the body undergoes a surgical procedure, part of the surgeon’s challenge is to repair the structures in need, without traumatizing nearby tissues. Unfortunately, post-surgical adhesions and scars are a natural and necessary part of the recovery process, as tissues heal after surgery.

Adhesions form as the first step in the healing process (see our general adhesions page for more detail) . Tiny crosslinks (the ‘building blocks’ of adhesions, shown below) rush in to begin the repair process. These microscopic but strong fibers begin the process of post-surgical adhesion formation, creating scars that last a lifetime.

Crosslinks, adhesions, and scars all describe the same product of healing – a glue-like substance that forms in three areas:

1. in tissues the surgeon cut to access the surgical site
2. where the surgeon cut, burned, or sutured tissues that required surgical intervention, and
3. in nearby tissues that were inflamed by the surgery, or by adhesive pulls after the surgery.

In an ideal recovery, surgical adhesions and scars glue sites that were cut, and the places where the doctor repaired tissues – and go no further. In some cases, post-surgical adhesions grow beyond the surgeon’s initial intent. These additional adhesions may bind neighboring structures that are designed to move independently. When that happens, the post-surgical adhesions and scars can create unusual symptoms and pulls in the body, often accompanied by pain or dysfunction that can confound patient and physician alike.

Repairing Surgical Adhesions by Repeat Surgery

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

While lysis of adhesions can be effective, surgery has two major drawbacks in that it carries risks from anesthesia and infection, and despite the best skills of the finest surgeon, the body creates more adhesions as it heals from the surgery designed to remove them.

This last concern was highlighted in a large study of surgery patients. Lancet: The British Journal of Surgery(1999, Ellis)1 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. Many follow-up surgeries (22%) occurred in the first year after surgery, and “readmissions continued steadily throughout the 10-year period” of the study.

For even the most skilled surgeon, surgery is a primary cause of adhesions.  A study in Digestive Surgery showed that more than 90% of patients develop adhesions following open abdominal surgery and 55% to 100% of women develop adhesions following pelvic surgery.²  Small-bowel obstruction, infertility, chronic abdominal and pelvic pain, and difficult re operative surgery are the most common consequences of peritoneal adhesions. Despite elaborate efforts to develop effective strategies to reduce or prevent adhesions, their formation remains a frequent occurrence after abdominal surgery.² Thus, many patients become trapped in a cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery – with no end in sight.

Non-Surgical Treatment: the Wurn Technique®

We know post-surgical adhesions well. We faced this situation 20 years ago when the physical therapist director of Clear Passage Physical Therapy, 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 adhesions in her own patients, she was determined to find a non-surgical way to address 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 Physical Therapy 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.

We treat men, women and some children for pain and dysfunction due to post-surgical adhesions, and recurring small bowel obstructions. 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.

1. Ellis H, Moran BJ, Thompson JN, Parker MC, Wilson MS, Menzies D, McGuire A, Lower AM, Hawthorn RJ, O’Brien F, Buchan S, Crowe AM. Adhesion-related hospital readmissions after abdominal and pelvic surgery: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Br J Med. 1999; 353: 1476-80. PMID 10232313.
2. Liakakos T, Thomakos N, Fine PM, Dervenis C, Young RL. Peritoneal Adhesions: Etiology, Pathophysiology, and Clinical Significance.Dig Surg. 2001; 18: 260-273. PMID 11528133.