ABSTRACT
Postsurgical adhesions are abnormal unions of normally separated internal tissue and organ surfaces. Adhesions are reported to develop in 55 to 97% of surgical procedures in the abdominal and pelvic cavities (1,2). Although they do not always result in clinical problems requiring reoperation, adhesions are responsible for approximately 74% of small-bowel obstructions (3), and are a primary factor in postsurgical infertility in women (4,5). An estimated 5% of all abdominal surgical procedures will require reoperation due to complications caused by adhesion (6). The cost of treating adhesions surgically is extraordinary. In 1994, there were 303,836 surgical procedures in the United States for lysis of adhesions at a total hospitalization and surgical cost of $1.3 billion (7). Successfully limiting postsurgical adhesion development could significantly improve patient morbidity and, in the long term, lower health care costs.
