Adhesions are lumps of scar tissue that form inside your body. Previous surgeries cause about 90 percent of abdominal adhesions. They can also develop from trauma, infections, or conditions that cause inflammation.
Adhesions can also form on the organs and cause organs to stick together. Many people with adhesions don’t experience any symptoms, but some people may have discomfort or digestive problems.
Abdominal adhesiolysis is a type of surgery that removes these adhesions from your abdomen.
Adhesions don’t show up on conventional imaging tests. Rather, doctors often discover them during diagnostic surgery when investigating symptoms or treating another condition. If the doctor finds adhesions, adhesiolysis may be done.
Abdominal adhesions often don’t cause noticeable symptoms. Adhesions often go undiagnosed because they aren’t visible with current imaging methods.
However, for some people, they can cause chronic pain and abnormal bowel movements.
If your adhesions are causing problems, laparoscopic adhesiolysis can remove them. It’s a minimally invasive procedure. With laparoscopic surgery, your surgeon will make a small incision in your abdomen and use a laparoscope to locate the adhesion.
A laparoscope is a long thin tube that contains a camera and light. It’s inserted into the incision and helps your surgeon find the adhesions to remove them.
Laparoscopic adhesiolysis may be used to treat the following conditions:
Adhesions can cause problems with digestion and even block the intestines. The adhesions can pinch off part of the intestines and cause a bowel obstruction. The obstruction may cause nausea, vomiting and an inability to pass gas or stool.
Adhesions can cause female reproductive problems by obstructing the ovaries or fallopian tubes.
They can also cause painful intercourse for some people. If your doctor suspects adhesions are causing your reproductive issues, they may recommend surgery to remove them.
Adhesions can sometimes cause pain, especially if they’re blocking the bowels. If you have abdominal adhesions, you may also experience the nausea or vomiting, swelling around your abdomen, dehydration and cramps along with pain
Open adhesiolysis is an alternative to laparoscopic adhesiolysis. During open adhesiolysis, a single incision is made through the midline of your body so your doctor can remove the adhesions from your abdomen. It’s more invasive than laparoscopic adhesiolysis.
Abdominal adhesions can form from any type of trauma to your abdomen. However, they’re most commonly a side effect of abdominal surgery.
Adhesions caused by surgery are more likely to cause symptoms than other types of adhesions. If you don’t feel symptoms, they usually don’t need to be treated.
Infections or conditions that cause inflammation can also cause adhesions, such as:
Adhesions often form on the inner lining of the abdomen. They can also develop between:
Adhesiolysis surgery may be used to remove adhesions from other parts of your body.
Pelvic adhesions can be a source of chronic pelvic pain. Surgery usually causes them, but they can also develop from an infection or endometriosis.
Hysteroscopic adhesiolysis is a surgery that removes adhesions from inside the uterus. Adhesions can cause pain and complications with pregnancy. Having adhesions in the uterus is also called Asherman syndrome.
After spinal surgery, fat found between the outer layer of the spinal cord and vertebrae can be replaced with adhesions made of tough fibrotic tissue that can irritate your nerves.
Epidural adhesiolysis helps remove these adhesions. Epidural adhesiolysis is also known as the Racz catheter procedure.
Peritoneal adhesions Trusted Source form between the inner layer of the abdominal wall and other organs. These adhesions might appear as thin layers of connective tissue containing nerves and blood vessels.
Peritoneal adhesiolysis aims to remove these adhesions and improve symptoms.
An adnexal mass is a growth near the uterus or ovaries. They’re often benign, but in some cases, they may be cancerous. Adnexal adhesiolysis is a surgical method to remove these growths.