Abdominal Adhesions & Bowel Obstruction

Abdominal adhesions can develop after previous surgery and may cause small bowel obstruction in some people.

What is this condition?

Adhesions are fibrous bands between tissues inside the abdomen; most cause no symptoms.

Obstruction can cause pain, distension, vomiting and inability to pass stool or gas.

Previous surgery, examination and CT help assess the cause and risk of complications.

Many adhesive obstructions can initially be managed non-operatively when there is no peritonitis, strangulation or ischemia.

Surgery is needed for failure of non-operative treatment or suspected compromised bowel and may involve adhesiolysis.

These publications demonstrate academic work related to the topic; they are not the sole source of current treatment standards.

PUB-2009-02 — 2009 — Pekmezci S., Saribeyoglu K., Korman U. The management of small bowel obstruction and enteroclysis. J Trauma. 2009; 66:1262. — https://doi.org/10.1097/TA.0b013e318198d6a2
PUB-2008-01 — 2008 — Selective laparoscopic adhesiolysis in the management of acute and chronic recurrent adhesive bowel obstruction. — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18306064/
PUB-2002-01 — 2002 — Enteroclysis-guided laparoscopic adhesiolysis in recurrent adhesive small bowel obstructions. — https://doi.org/10.1097/00129689-200206000-00005

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