What We Treat

Surgery

Surgery has been identified as 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.

As noted above, surgery to remove adhesions has itself been implicated as a major cause of adhesion formation. Surgeries that may cause adhesions or scars to form in and around organs include:

• bowel obstruction repair
• appendectomy
• episiotomy or C-section
• laparoscopy or laparotomy
• hysterectomy
• back or hip surgery
• abortion
• complete or partial removal of organs
• gastric bypass
• plastic surgery

Many people experience decreased function, increased tissue tension, or loss of range of motion after an injury, surgery or infection. Like scars that form on the skin, adhesions create “internal scars.” They may become painful and inhibit proper function by adhering tissues and organs that are designed to move freely. Mechanical problems can occur in the body due as a result of adhesions that form when the body tries to compensate after the original injury, surgery, or infection.

Inflammation and Infection

Inflammation and infections are frequent causes of tissue damage and adhesions form as the first step in healing. As the body starts the process of healing from inflammation, it can form blankets of collagenous crosslinks to contain the area that has become inflamed. Once the inflammation ends, the blanket of adhesions remains in the affected area.

Inflammatory and infectious processes known to cause adhesions include:

• colitis
• diverticulitis
• gastritis
• gastroenteritis
• cholecystitis
• perforated ulcer
• pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
• endometriosis
• cystitis or vaginitis
• perforated diverticulum, small or large bowel
• appendicitis
• hepatitis

Traumas

Adhesion-causing traumas include falls, accidents and physical or sexual abuse. The trauma of radiation therapy can also cause massive adhesion formation at or near the sites of cancer treatment. In addition, inflammation following trauma or radiation therapy may cause adhesions to spread to neighboring organs and symptoms sometimes appear far from the site of the original trauma.

When adhesions totally block an organ (e.g. bowel or intestinal obstruction), they can become life-threatening. In areas where they impose on pain-sensitive structures, they can cause constant or recurring pain. They may also pull into structures distant from the original tissue trauma, causing distant dysfunction or referred pain – pain experienced in a part of the body other than the source of pain. We have found that adhesions are often the cause of the unexplained or complex pain patterns we see in many of our chronic pain patients.

When adhesions occur around the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes or the delicate fimbriae at the end of the uterine tubes, pain or infertility may result. They may impose upon structures within the female reproductive organs, block a fallopian tube, cover an ovary or cause inflammation on the walls of the uterus. While all of these may decrease reproductive function, they may or may not cause pain.

Tiny adhesions that form between muscle cells deep within the cervix may cause pain during sexual intercourse, when the partner hits the cervix. Regardless of whether they cause pain, these adhesions can cause cervical stenosis (closing) or fibrosis (tightness), decreasing fertility and the ease of sperm transport into the uterus.

The cervix is designed to be held in a midline position by four ligaments: to the pubic bones (in front), to the sacrum (in back), and to the pelvic walls (on each side). If any of these ligaments become adhered, the cervix is pulled by adhesions with each step a woman takes.

Clinically, we find that this constant pull can cause inflammation in the uterus. As we now know, the body’s response to inflammation is to send in adhesive crosslinks. In this case, adhesions form on the uterine wall, decreasing the chance for egg implantation and pregnancy.

We have helped many men, women and children overcome ongoing pain or dysfunction due to scars or adhesions. Our therapists use the Wurn Technique^®, applying pressure and shearing to detach the crosslinks that adhesions are made of.

Our primary therapy focus is treating adhesions affecting the soft tissues of the entire body:

• the fascia, (the connective tissue that supports and separates all of the body structures, and is the body’s main shock absorber)

• the muscles (which help us move)

• the organs (which help us function)

• the nerves (which alert us to problems, through pain)

• the ligaments (which connect bone to bone)

• tendons (which connect muscles to bone)

Learn more about the Wurn Technique^® and what to expect during treatment.

Until recently, the only choice medical science offered to repair adhesive damage was a surgical procedure called “lysis of adhesions.” Whether performed by laparoscopy (non-invasive surgery) or open surgery, lysis involves cutting or burning the adhesions. While adhesion lysis can be very effective, it has two major drawbacks:

• surgeons must avoid areas where they might damage delicate underlying structures – something the surgeon cannot see until a patient is under anesthesia.
• despite the best skills of the finest surgeon, the body creates more adhesions to heal from the very surgery designed to remove them.

This second 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.

Like the patients in the study noted above, a number of our post-surgical patients have felt trapped in a cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery – with no end in sight.