Surgical impact of adhesions following surgery in the upper abdomen
Authors: Thompson J N , Ellis H , Parker M C , Menzies D , Moran B J , Wilson M S , McGuire A , Lower A M , Hawthorn R J S , O'Brien F , Buchan S , Crowe A M 
Published: March 2003

Background

The Surgical and Clinical Adhesions Research (SCAR) study set out to determine the long-term morbidity associated with postoperative adhesions following open abdominal and pelvic surgery, including the burden associated with adhesions after surgery in the upper abdomen.

Methods

Scotland's National Health Service hospital admissions are recorded by the Scottish Medical Record Linkage system. This system allows detailed analysis of hospital activity throughout Scotland including follow-through of individual patients, with sophisticated accuracy checks to ensure the quality and totality of the data set. Within the SCAR study, the total number of individuals who underwent an open abdominal or pelvic procedure in 1986 was defined, a subset of whom underwent surgery in the anatomical area of the upper abdomen (fore gut and related organs). Disease (International Classification of Diseases version 9) and procedure (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys 3/4) codes for adhesion-related problems or reoperations that might be complicated by the presence of adhesions were identified. For the purposes of the study only readmissions for directly related adhesion complications during the following 10 years were considered (e.g. small bowel obstruction and adhesiolysis). The study was steered by a multidisciplinary panel of surgeons, gynaecologists and health economists.

Results

In 1986 in Scotland, a total cohort of 8714 patients had open surgery in the upper abdomen which was considered likely to cause adhesions. This compared to 12 585 undergoing open surgery in the lower abdomen (mid hindgut) and 8489 in the female reproductive tract. The majority of patients in this cohort underwent open surgery on the gallbladder (44·4 per cent) or stomach (20·6 per cent). During the 10-year study 3293 individuals (37·8 per cent) required one or more readmissions for surgical or medical treatment for conditions either related to adhesions or involving a reoperation which could be complicated by adhesions. In total, 7048 surgical or medical readmissions were identified, with a mean of 2·1 readmissions per patient. At least 321 (4·6 per cent) of these readmissions were a direct result of abdominal or pelvic adhesions, constituting a large clinical burden. Analysis of readmissions over time showed that this burden continued steadily over the 10-year study period. As well as this workload burden, there was a risk for the patient associated with open surgery on the foregut with a mean of 3·7 readmissions for direct adhesion complications for every 100 initial procedures. This rate varied according to the site of initial surgery: 3·0 per 100 procedures for open surgery of the gallbladder, 3·5 per 100 for the stomach and 7·3 per 100 for open surgery on the pancreas.

Conclusion

The SCAR study provides the first epidemiological assessment of postoperative adhesions. Using an extremely conservative view, the medical and surgical impact following open surgery in the upper abdomen is considerable with 4·6 per cent of readmissions over a 10-year period directly attributable to adhesions. The full impact of adhesions, including their effect on subsequent surgery, is likely to be considerably greater and extensive research is being progressed with the SCAR data set to investigate further the burden and associated costs, and optimum strategies to reduce the problem.