What are adhesions after surgery? How adhesions cause intestinal obstruction
Adhesions The term "adhesion" is often bandied about by the patient and sometimes by the profession. When used in discussing the abdomen, it refers to the fact that part of its contents become stuck (adherent) together or to its lining wall either directly or by strings or bands of scar tissue. In this regard the inside of the abdomen may have adhesions that look like seven stories of clothesline in the backyard of a tenement, or it may have a broad band of scar like a highway stanchion, or the intestine may be broadly stuck in the way that clothes can be matted to a wad of chewing gum. Adhesions come from infection or from manipulations within the abdomen. Adhesions are not bad; they represent part of the healing process. They are also one of the body's methods of limiting the spread of inflammation. Virtually everyone who has recovered from an intraabdominal infection can be expected to have some abdominal adhesions. All patients who have been operated on have them...