Tissue adhesion after surgical interventions (Review)

Tissue adhesion after surgical procedures is a common postoperative complication that affects a significant number of patients across all surgical disciplines. In pelvic surgical procedures, second-look surgeries have revealed adhesions in more than half of all patients weeks to several months after surgery. Adhesions can be asymptomatic, but they can also cause a wide range of complications, such as severe pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, ileus and reproductive dysfunction. Undetected adhesions that lead to problems in subsequent surgical interventions are also of high clinical importance. Lysis of these adhesions before the actual surgery leads to loss of time and possible additional complications, such as trocar injuries in laparoscopies or inadvertent enterotomies during adhesiolysis, during the originally planned intervention. The health care associated with adhesion-related problems are significant. Because of the widely varying manifestations of symptoms, the already concerning figure of patients with significant adhesions is likely to increase. Outpatient healthcare expenditures are further increased because of undetected adhesions. Adhesions therefore represent a major surgical and health economic problem; however, yet there are currently few options for prophylaxis and treatment.