Clinical implications of postsurgical adhesions

Adhesion development can have a major impact on a patient's subsequent heal th. Adhesions are a significant source of impaired organ functioning, decre ased fertility, bowel obstruction, difficult re-operation, and possibly pai n. Consequently, their financial sequelae are also extraordinary, with more than one billion dollars spent in the USA in 1994 on the bowel obstruction component alone. Performing adhesiolysis for pain relief appears efficacio us in certain subsets of women. Unfortunately even when lysed, adhesions ha ve a great propensity to reform. Adhesions are prevalent in all surgical fi elds, and nearly any compartment of the body. For treatment of infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss, lysis of intrauterine adhesions results in im proved fecundability and decreased pregnancy loss.