An Overview of Postoperative Intraabdominal Adhesions and Their Role on Female Infertility: A Narrative Review

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 12; no. 6; p. 2263
• Main Authors: Ghobrial, Stefan, Ott, Johannes, Parry, John Preston
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.03.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Abdomen; Abdominal surgery; Adhesion; Adhesions; Adhesives; Care and treatment; Clinical medicine; Complications; Complications and side effects; Diagnosis; Expenditures; Foreign bodies; Granulomas; Gynecology; Hospital costs; Infertility; Infertility, Female; Inflammation; Length of stay; Ovaries; Patients; Review; Risk factors; Surgery; Sutures; Trauma; Austria; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; complications; infertility; adhesion barrier; postoperative adhesion formation; prevention
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm12062263

Postoperative intraabdominal adhesions can occur after more than 90% of gynecologic surgeries. They not only cause chronic pelvic pain and small bowel obstruction, but are also one of the main reasons for infertility. Adhesions are not only a burden for the affected patients, but are also a burden for the healthcare system, since the treatment of adhesion-associated complications costs a considerable amount of money. The gold standard for the diagnosis of adhesions is by laparoscopy, although other methods, such as transvaginal hydro-laparoscopy, are being discussed as better alternatives. Ideally, adhesions are avoided inherently, by operating carefully and by using microsurgical principles. If this is not possible, gel barriers have been shown to be successful in reducing postoperative adhesions.