Adhesions are a type of scar tissue which sometimes develop after surgery.

Adhesions are strips or bands of fibrous tissue. Sometimes they cause organs to stick to one another or to surrounding tissues. Occasionally, after abdominal surgery, adhesions may interfere with the normal movement of the bowel leading to colicky spasms or even temporary blockage (obstruction) of the bowel.

Usually adhesions cause few problems. Sometimes they can cause discomfort or even pain but mostly this goes away on its own after a short time. If it lasts for longer pain killers, like paracetamol, or drugs that relieve muscle cramps such as buscopan, will usually ease the discomfort. 

Rarely adhesions can cause blockage of the bowel and symptoms such as severe colicky tummy pain, sickness and constipation. If this happens it is treated with a short stay in hospital. The treatment is to rest the bowel. So, no food or drink is taken for a day or so and fluid is given through a drip into a vein instead. With this treatment the blockage goes away after a day or so. Occasionally a fine tube is put via the nose into the stomach to drain of the gastric juices (a nasogastric tube) to rest the bowel more completely.

Very occasionally surgeons need to operate to divide and separate adhesions. But they usually try to avoid this since another operation raises the risk of forming more adhesions.