Tag Archive for post-surgical adhesions

Why Do I Have Chronic Pain After Surgery?

July 6, 2011 Clear Passage Physical Therapy 2 comments

Surgery can be a necessary and lifesaving procedure.

However, surgery often results in side effects in the months and years after the procedure. Infection, inflammation, chronic pain and even bowel obstruction can occur after a surgical procedure as a result of adhesion formation.

Adhesions form as the bodies natural response to a trauma, surgery, infection or inflammation. They act as internal scars binding and covering tissues and organs throughout the body.

Unfortunately, these adhesions remain in the body long after the body has healed. This can result in pain after surgery, reduced range of motion, and dysfunction. In essence, these adhesions act as a strong glue restricting the body’s normal function.

Common surgeries that result in adhesion formation include:

  • Abdominal or pelvic surgery
  • C-section or Episiotomy
  • Laparotomy or Laparoscopy
  • Back or Hip Surgery
  • Gastric Bypass
  • Hysterectomy
  • Appendectomy
  • Mastectomy
  • Lysis of adhesions
  • Bowel Obstruction repair

The Wurn Technique is a natural treatment option for pain after surgery. This treatment uses over 200 hands on techniques to reduce the restriction and pain caused by adhesions.

Do you experience pain after surgery? What treatments have you tried?

We’d love to hear your comments.

Adhesions, Conditions, Featured Articles, Post-surgical Pain, Recent Posts , , , , , , ,

Opening Blocked Fallopian Tubes – Surgical vs. Natural

June 15, 2011 Clear Passage Physical Therapy No comments


Blocked Tubes and Infertility
As the place where natural conception occurs, the fallopian tubes are truly the place where life begins. Due to their location and size, fallopian tubes can become blocked from pelvic scars or adhesions. Together, these “mechanical causes” account for about 40% of all female infertility. Tubes can block near the uterus (proximal), by the ovary (distal) or in the middle of the tube (mid-tubal). In some cases, the tube swell with a fluid in a condition called hydrosalpinx.  While a single blocked tube impairs fertility, blockage of both tubes causes total infertility.

Surgical Tools

Surgery
Until recently, the only options for women with blocked tubes were to undergo surgery to open one or both tubes, or to remove the blocked tubes, and proceed directly to in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is often the recommended course that infertility specialists offer to women with hydrosalpinx.

 

Natural Treatment – The Wurn Technique
The Wurn TechniqueSeveral medical journals have now examined a manual physical therapy (Wurn Technique®) for its ability to open and return function to totally blocked fallopian tubes, including hydrosalpinx. The “hands-on” treatment opened tubes in most of the study participants, without surgery or drugs. Most of the successes had natural pregnancies and births after therapy. Several reported subsequent pregnancies/births, so the positive results lasted for years for these women. In other published studies, the therapy significantly decreased pelvic and intercourse pain, and improved sexual function. The therapy can be used as a stand-alone infertility treatment or in conjunction with regular medical care.

Surgical Treatment vs. Natural Treatment
In comparing the treatment options for opening blocked fallopian tubes, we find the following results:

Pros and cons of the Wurn Technique, a hands-on physical therapy:

  • Pros of the Wurn Technique
    • Requires no drugs
    • Requires no surgery
    • Published studies and citations show good results
    • Lower risks and costs than surgery
    • Results can last for years – allows for several natural pregnancies
    • Success opening blockages throughout the tube (proximal, mid-tubal, distal)
  • Cons of the Wurn Technique
    • Few US clinic locations (Florida, California, Washington DC)
    • Limited published data

Pros and cons of surgery to open blocked fallopian tubes:

  • Pros of Surgery
    • Many studies are published documenting its success
    • Has good success in opening blockages that are near the uterus
  • Cons of Surgery
    • Higher risks and costs than the Wurn Technique
    • Risk of damaging other tissues or organs during surgery
    • Poor results opening tubes blocked beyond the uterus (mid-tubal or distal)
    • Repair of blockage near the uterus gives a limited time to conceive
    • Removal of the tube is permanent
    • Possible side effects from anesthesia

Interested in learning more about opening blocked fallopian tubes with the Wurn Technique? Download our free eBook on treating blocked fallopian tubes naturally.

Blocked Tubes eBook

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Prior C-Section Can Cause Adhesions

April 21, 2011 Clear Passage Physical Therapy No comments
C-Section Adhesions Scar Tissue

C-section surgery generally causes adhesions to form. These adhesions can pull or spread into neighboring structures, causing c-section pain or dysfunction, including secondary infertility.

C-section Can Cause Adhesions

Cesarean section delivery (C-section) is the most common surgery among women in the US. Unfortunately, this invasive surgical procedure requires a great deal of healing to occur. Adhesions are one of the bodies automatic responses to traumas such as a fall, a surgery, an infection, or an inflammation. These adhesions are much like thick strands of nylon rope that bind to nearby structures and restrict and cover the traumatized area. Though they are designed to help the body heal, adhesions often cause ongoing pain or dysfunction, long after the surface scars have healed.

Adhesions Can Cause Pain

Because adhesions attach to nearby tissues and organs, they create a pull or restriction in the pelvis, which often results in pain. As the organs, tissues, and muscles attempt to move, a resulting pain occurs.

Secondary Infertility if often caused by C-section Adhesions

Adhesions that form after a C-section can bind together delicate reproductive structures, causing dysfunction and secondary infertility.

Adhesions Can Cause Secondary Infertility

As adhesions form throughout the pelvis, they can attach to the delicate organs of the female reproductive system. These strong, fibrous bands restrict the mobility and function of these organs, often causing secondary infertility.

Adhesions Can Cause Digestive Issues

Adhesions can also affect regular digestion by attaching to the outside or inside of the intestine wall. As adhesions bonds grow, they restrict the regular function of digestion, and can often lead to a partial bowel obstruction.

Treatment for Adhesions

Often times, pain killers or infertility drugs are offered as a treatment for those who suffer from post-surgical adhesions. Unfortunately, drugs merely mask the true problem of adhesions and offer no long-term solutions. The next step in treatment is to undergo surgery to cut or burn adhesion bonds throughout the pelvis. However, the trauma of an additional surgery causes additional adhesions to form, which can create an endless cycle of adhesions and surgery.

A manual physical therapy, called the Wurn Technique, has shown excellent results in decreasing pain and increasing function related to adhesions. This therapy feels much like a deep pelvic massage as therapists use their hands to break down the bonds of adhesions throughout the pelvis. This therapy has been endorsed by physicians from Harvard, Northwestern, and Columbia as an alternative treatment to surgery. Click here to learn more about this treatment for post C-section adhesions.

“What a much-needed, useful and safe way to deal with the common, yet mystifying problem of adhesions. You have perfected a technique to treat adhesions, with years of experience, scientific backup and case studies to prove it.”

-Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, Northwestern University Medical Director

Adhesions, Bowel Obstruction, Featured Articles, Fertility, Post-surgical Pain, Recent Posts, Secondary Infertility , , , , , , , , , ,

Flowers, Chocolates, and Endometriosis

February 14, 2011 Clear Passage Physical Therapy No comments

Today is Valentine’s Day. For many couples, the day will be met with chocolate roses, gushing cards, and sweet embraces. For women who suffer from endometriosis however, it may be met with heightened anxiety, relational challenges, and debilitating pain.

Studies estimate that up to half of all US women experience problems with painful intercourse, (dyspareunia). This all too common health issue is often met with the response, “It’s all in your head”. This explanation can create a feeling of disempowerment for women who know there is a very real source to the pain they experience.

It is not all in your head

Despite health professional’s dismissal of intercourse pain as a psychological issue, the pain is often a result of a mechanical issue caused by adhesions. Adhesions form as part of the body’s healing process after an infection, inflammation, surgery or trauma.

Adhesions can form as a result of:

  • Endometriosis
  • Bladder or Vaginal Infection
  • Surgery (C-section, episiotomy, laparotomy)
  • Trauma to the tailbone or pubic bones (often a fall or accident)

These adhesions create thick fibrous bands at the site of the initial trauma and can attach to the delicate tissues and organs within the pelvis. These attachments create a pull during intercourse, which often results in pain. This pain has been described as either sharp and specific or broad and deep.

Getting the spark back

A study published in Fertility and Sterility, investigated the decrease of painful intercourse in women with endometriosis after receiving a hands-on physical therapy treatment, called the Wurn Technique®. The study reported the following results:

  • 50% of study participants reported reduced ovulation pain
  • 61% of study participants reported reduced menstrual pain
  • 93% of study participants reported reduced intercourse pain
  • 64% reported increased intensity and duration of orgasm
  • 71% reported increased desire (libido)
  • 86% reported increased arousal
  • 79% reported increased lubrication
  • 71% reported increased satisfaction
  • 93% reported improved overall sexual function

The Wurn Technique® feels much like a deep pelvic massage and can be completed in as little as five days.  The Wurn Technique® is provided by the skilled therapists at Clear Passage Physical Therapy. Each therapist empowers their patients by working with them instead of simply working on them throughout therapy. The Clear Passage team has helped many couples return to a healthy and intimate relationship.

“Before therapy intercourse was too painful.

Since therapy, I have had no pain. This is incredible.

What a gift to our marriage. Thank you.”

-Clear Passage Patient

For more information, visit www.clearpassage.com.

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VIDEO: Reversing Small Bowel Obstruction without Surgery

November 16, 2010 Clear Passage Physical Therapy One comment

A previous Clear Passage patient shares his ongoing struggle with recurring small bowel obstructions and his desperate search for an alternative to surgery. He describes how he discovered the answer to stop the cycle of small bowel obstructions after placing his health in the capable hands at Clear Passage.

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