How to Treat Adhesions

Adhesions are bands of scar tissue that bind two other tissues together that should normally be separate from each other. One will usually occur in response to surgery, infection, or injury. Although they can form anywhere, they typically form in the stomach, pelvis, or heart. While most adhesions do not cause problems and go unnoticed for many years, there are cases where they can lead to serious complications in which treatment is necessary. Here are some tips to help you assess whether or not you may have one and what you should do about it.

Instructions

• 1

  Evaluate your symptoms to determine whether or not you may have an adhesion. Most of the time adhesions will not cause symptoms and will go unnoticed. Usually symptoms would include pain by the pulling of nerves between organs or within the adhesion itself. If you have just had surgery or have a history of medical illness and are experiencing chest pain, abdominal pain, pelvic pain, or unexplained fever, then there is a good chance you may have developed an adhesion.

• 2

  Contact your medical provider to discuss these symptoms with your doctor. There is no self-care treatment available for adhesions. Your doctor will be able to talk to you about options if it is determined that you do in fact have an adhesion that needs treatment.

• 3

  Determine if your adhesion will require an emergency surgery. In most cases, an adhesion will improve on its own. In this case, doctors will treat your symptoms only.

• 4

  Discuss the different kinds of surgery options with your doctor if you do require immediate medical attention. Two common techniques are laparoscopy where a camera is placed in your body through a small hole to confirm the location of an adhesion. It is then cut and released. The other option would be laparotomy where the doctor makes a larger incision to see and treat the adhesion.