In seach of a diagnosis of Adhesions?

Adhesions and Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP)
by Dr. David Wiseman
International Adhesions Society
ADHESIONS are believed to cause pelvic pain by tethering down organs and tissues, causing traction (pulling) of nerves. Nerve endings may become entrapped within a developing adhesion. If the bowel becomes obstructed, distention will cause pain.
Some patients in whom chronic pelvic pain has lasted more than six months may develop "Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome.” In addition to the chronic pain, emotional and behavioral changes appear due to the duration of the pain and its associated stress. According to the International Pelvic Pain Society:
"We have all been taught from infancy to avoid pain. However, when pain is persistent and there seems to be no remedy, it creates tremendous tension. Most of us think of pain as being a symptom of tissue injury. However, in chronic pelvic pain almost always the tissue injury has ceased but the pain continues. This leads to a very important distinction between chronic pelvic pain and episodes of other pain that we might experience during our life: usually pain is a symptom, but in chronic pelvic pain, pain becomes the disease."
Chronic pelvic pain is estimated to affect nearly 15% of women between 18 and 50 (Mathias et al., 1996). Other estimates arrive at between 200,000 and 2 million women in the United States (Paul, 1998). The economic effects are also quite staggering. In a survey of households, Mathias et al. (1996) estimated that direct medical costs for outpatient visits for chronic pelvic pain for the U.S. population of women aged 18-50 years are $881.5 million per year. Among 548 employed respondents, 15% reported time lost from paid work and 45% reported reduced work productivity.
Not all ADHESIONS cause pain, and not all pain is caused by ADHESIONS.
Not all surgeons, particularly general surgeons, agree that ADHESIONS cause pain. Part of the problem seems to be that it is not easy to observe ADHESIONS non-invasively, for example with MRI or CT scans. However, several studies do describe the relationship between pain and adhesions. According to an early study (Rosenthal et al., 1984) of patients reporting CPP, about 40% have adhesions only, and another 17% have endometriosis (with or without adhesions). Kresch et al., (1984) also studied 100 women and found ADHESIONS in 38% of the cases and endometriosis in another 32%. Overall estimates (Howard, 1993) of the percentage of patients with CPP and ADHESIONS is about 25%, with endometriosis accounting for another 28%. These figures must be understood in their context, and I recommend highly Howard's article.
It is important to recognize that emotional stress contributes greatly to the patient’s perception of pain and her/his ability to deal with the pain. Rosenthal et al. (1984) found that of the patients in whom a possible physical cause of pain (including ADHESIONS) could be identified, 75% had evidence of psychological influences on the pain.

The Magnitude of the Problem of Adhesions
The rate of adhesion formation after surgery is surprising given the relative lack of knowledge about ADHESIONS among doctors and patients alike. From autopsies on victims of traffic accidents, Weibel and Majno (1973) found that 67% of patients who had undergone surgery had adhesions. This number increased to 81% and 93% for patients with major and multiple procedures respectively. Similarly, Menzies and Ellis (1990) found that 93% of patients who had undergone at least one previous abdominal operation had adhesions, compared with only 10.4% of patients who had never had a previous abdominal operation. Furthermore, 1% of all laparotomies developed obstruction due to adhesions within one year of surgery with 3% leading to obstruction at some time after surgery. Of all cases of small bowel obstruction, 60-70% of cases involve adhesions (Ellis, 1997).
Lastly, following surgical treatment of adhesions causing intestinal obstruction, obstruction due to adhesion reformation occurred in 11 to 21% of cases (Menzies, 1993).
Between 55 and 100% of patients undergoing pelvic reconstructive surgery will form adhesions.
The impact of adhesions as a complication of surgery is huge. In the United States (1993) 347,000 operations for lysis of peritoneal adhesions were performed (Graves, 1995), of which about 100,000 involved intestinal adhesions. Estimated another way, 446,000 procedures were performed in the U.S. to lyse abdominopelvic adhesions in 1993 (HCIA, 1994).
In 1988, there were about 280,000 hospitalizations for adhesions, the economic cost of which was estimated conservatively as $1.2 billion per year (Fox Ray et al., 1993).

Thanks to Dr. Wiseman.
Please visit the International adhesions society to learn more about ARD and bowel obstuctions