Overcome Bowel Obstruction with a Safe and Natural Therapy

Treating Bowel Adhesions Non-Surgically

Small bowel obstruction (SBO) is usually caused by adhesions that occur in the small intestines (small bowels). Post-surgical adhesions are the leading cause of blockage in the small intestines; they cause 60% of all small bowel obstructions. SBO is quite prevalent, and it accounts for 20% of all acute surgical admissions in the USA.¹

Adhesion formation in the small bowel is generally a gradual process. Adhesions form in the bowel after surgery, inflammation or infection, and can partially or totally block the intestines over time.

While total small bowel obstruction is a life-threatening condition that requires immediate hospitalization, recent data shows that partial bowel obstruction may be reversible by a program of physical therapy designed to decrease or eliminate adhesions. Thus, the progression to total obstruction and surgery may be delayed or eliminated by non-surgical means.

Historically, partial bowel obstruction often led to total bowel obstruction, followed by emergency surgery. Since surgery is also the leading cause of bowel obstruction, many patients found themselves in an ongoing cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery as both surgeon and patient tried to cope with the near-inevitable formation of adhesions after surgery. Surgeons use various methods to try to decrease reformation of adhesions, but ongoing studies yielding statistics like those above show that post-surgical adhesion prevention remains an elusive goal.

A new manual physical therapy (Wurn Technique®) which is designed to reduce or eliminate adhesions, is helping people who suffer recurrent small bowel obstruction or abdominal adhesions break the cycle of surgery and adhesions, and return to a pain-free, functional lifestyle – without surgery.

To understand how a manual physical therapy can reverse partial bowel obstruction, it is important to understand the structure and progress of adhesions.

 

The Structure of Adhesions

Just as a nylon rope is composed of hundreds of tiny strands, adhesions are composed of tiny but powerful fibers of collagen, called cross-links. When the body heals from am inflammation, infection or surgery, hundreds of these collagenous cross-links rush in to help contain the area that has been injured. In fact, adhesions form as the very first step in the healing process after tissue damage.

Cross-links join together after a surgery to form rope, curtain or blanket-like structures. Wherever they form, adhesions join structures with strong glue-like bonds that can last a lifetime (see our general adhesions page for more detail.)

Adhesions in the Small Bowel

The small bowel is a delicate tube-like structure roughly 7½ to 12 feet in length.² To maintain its length, the small bowel undergoes dozens of loops and folds as it absorbs nutrients en route from the stomach to the large intestines. When this organ becomes inflamed or is cut during surgery, the small bowel becomes susceptible to adhesions. 
Bowel adhesions may form as curtains or ropes within a section of the bowel, or between the loops of the intestines. Bowel adhesions can kink the intestines closed like a garden hose, or may form a glue-like ring or plug, restricting or totally blocking the passage designed to carry food through the bowel for processing and elimination.
Any narrowing or closing of the small intestine by adhesions is referred to as a small bowel obstruction, occlusion, or blockage. The first indication of a bowel obstruction is often pain or nausea, accompanied by difficult or total inability to have a bowel movement. As food has difficulty passing through the intestines, it becomes backed up.

In a partial bowel obstruction, the patient may be restricted to eat only liquids, or very soft food. As a partial obstruction worsens, the stomach may fill with food that will not pass, and patients find they cannot eliminate waste or eat more food. As the obstruction worsens, it may develop into a total bowel obstruction – a life-threatening condition that must be treated surgically by a physician.

Click HERE to read an eBook on treating small bowel obstruction without surgery.

Treating Bowel Obstructions with Surgery

Until recently, medical science had little to offer patients with partial bowel obstruction except to change to a soft or liquid diet. Surgical lysis of adhesions remains the only choice medical science offers to treat total bowel occlusion. This surgery involves cutting or burning the adhesions under general anesthesia, via laparotomy (open surgery). In addition, the bowel is generally severed, the obstructed area is removed, and the (now shortened) bowel ends are re-attached.

While lysis of bowel adhesions can be effective, surgery has some major drawbacks:

1. It carries the risks associated with general anesthesia,
2. It carries risk of infection deep within the body (peritonitis) from spillage of bowel contents into the abdomen, and
3. Despite the best skills of the finest surgeon, the body creates more bowel adhesions as it heals from the surgery designed to remove them.

A study in Digestive Surgery showed that more than 90% of patients develop adhesions following open abdominal surgery and 55% to 100% of women develop adhesions following pelvic surgery.³ Another study reported that 35% of all open abdominal or pelvic surgery patients were readmitted to the hospital more than twice to treat post-surgical adhesions during the 10 years after their original surgery.⁴ Thus, abdominal surgery itself has been implicated as a major cause of adhesion formation and many patients become trapped in a cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery – with no end in sight. 

Treating Bowel Obstructions with the Wurn Technique®

We know bowel adhesions well. We faced this situation 20 years ago when the physical therapist director of Clear Passage Physical Therapy, Belinda Wurn, developed severe adhesions after pelvic surgery and radiation therapy to her abdomen. Unable to work due to the pain, and having seen the devastating effects of bowel adhesions in her own patients, she was determined to find a non-surgical way to address bowel adhesions. 

With her husband, massage therapist Larry Wurn, Belinda took a much deeper look at the etiology and biomechanics of adhesion formation. They found that the chemical bonds that attached each of the tiny collagen fibers to its neighbor appeared to dissipate or dissolve when placed under sustained pressure over time. With this knowledge, they spent two decades to develop the Wurn Technique® as a system to unravel the bonds between the cross-links that create adhesions deep within the abdomen.

Like peeling apart the run in a three-dimensional sweater, the Wurn Technique is designed to reduce or eliminate adhesions, crosslink by crosslink. It has been shown in peer-reviewed medical journals to reduce adhesions, decrease pain, and improve soft tissue mobility, without the risks of surgery or drugs. In fact, published studies and citations have shown it opened adhered structures as tiny as fallopian tubes^5,6,7 which are smaller and generally less accessible than the small bowel. Clinically, we are seeing very good success helping decrease or eliminate the adhesions that block the intestines, and breaking the cycle of surgery-adhesions-surgery for our patients.

The Wurn Technique is practiced exclusively at Clear Passage Physical Therapy clinics. Visit our “What treatment is like” web page for more information, or click the link at the bottom of this page now, to complete a medical history questionnaire and apply for an in-depth consultation, at no cost.

 

 

 

1. Small Bowel Obstruction, Brian A Noble, MD, http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/774140-overview
2. Fanucci A, Cerro P, Fraracci L, Ietto F. Small bowel length measured by radiography. Gastrointest Radiol (& Abdominal Imaging Journal). 1984;9(4):349-51. PMID 6500246.
3. Liakakos T, Thomakos N, Fine PM, Dervenis C, Young RL. Peritoneal Adhesions: Etiology, Pathophysiology, and Clinical Significance.Dig Surg. 2001; 18: 260-273. PMID 11528133.
4. Ellis H, Moran BJ, Thompson JN, Parker MC, Wilson MS, Menzies D, McGuire A, Lower AM, Hawthorn RJ, O’Brien F, Buchan S, Crowe AM. Adhesion-related hospital readmissions after abdominal and pelvic surgery: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Br J Med. 1999; 353: 1476-80. PMID 10232313.
5. Wurn BF, Wurn LJ, King CR, Heuer MA, Roscow AS, Hornberger K, Scharf ES. Treating Fallopian Tube Occlusion with a Manual Pelvic Physical Therapy. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2008 Jan-Feb;14(1):18-23. PMID 18251317.
6. Wurn LJ, Wurn BF, Kan M, King CR, Roscow AS, Scharf ES. Treating hydrosalpinx with a manual physical therapy. Fertility and Sterility. 2006; 86 (Supp 2): S307. Abstract.
7. Can noninvasive pelvic physical therapy open occluded fallopian tubes? Contemporary Ob/Gyn, Technology, Vol. 53, April 15, 2008, p. 12.