Scar Tissue Column

Scar Tissue Causes and How The Symptoms Can be Treated at Laser Spine Institute

In the back and neck, scar tissue causes can vary widely. Sometimes they’re obvious: injuries from car accidents, hard falls, previous back surgery or a back condition like a herniated disc. Other times they are less apparent: a tiny muscle pull in your neck or repeated twisting and bending at work to do the same task time and again. In any of those scenarios, muscle and other types of tissue can sustain tears and damage. As the body works to heal itself, it produces scar tissue, which is tougher and thicker than regular tissue. It’s meant to protect the damaged area, but its bulky, inflexible make up can restrict movement and in some cases cause pain. This occurs when scar tissue compresses nerve root tissue. The nerve becomes inflamed, and soreness, swelling, numbness and tingling can result.

Scar Tissue Treatment for Back or Neck Pain Sufferers at Laser Spine Institute

For countless back and neck pain sufferers, the problem isn’t a bulging disc, osteoarthritis, or degenerative disc disease. It’s scar tissue. This tough, fibrous tissue can press on nerve roots, causing common back and neck problems like pinched nerves and sciatica. Fortunately, there is scar tissue treatment available that is both effective and safe at Laser Spine Institute (LSI). Our surgeons perform innovative procedures using endoscopic techniques that can remove scar tissue gently and effectively. This isn’t always true of traditional open-back surgery. Those procedures often require large, deep incisions that can actually create more scar tissue.  Previous surgery is actually one of the scar tissue causes that lead patients to LSI for scar tissue treatment.

Excessive Scar Tissue Formation Can Often be Avoided at LSI

Excessive scar tissue formation is one of the main culprits for causing post-back or neck surgery problems. It builds up as the body heals, and in some cases it presses on nerves and causes more back or neck pain. This is a possibility following traditional open-back or neck surgeries because those procedures are invasive, and require the cutting and tearing of a lot of muscle and other tissue. Fortunately, Laser Spine Institute (LSI) offers gentler, minimally invasive procedures that reduce the likelihood of scar tissue formation. 

Scar Tissue Sufferers May be Candidates for A Procedure at Laser Spine Institute

If you’ve undergone back or neck surgery and scar tissue formation has caused more back or neck pain, LSI may be able to help. We offer a procedure called a laminotomy that can often treat the pain associated with epidural fibrosis-- the scientific name for nerve root compression by scar tissue. Epidural fibrosis sometimes occurs after traditional open-back or neck surgery because a lot of muscle and other tissues are cut and torn in the process. As the body heals those wounds, it creates tough, fibrous scar tissue, which is bulkier than regular tissue and can sometimes press on nerves. 

Scar Tissue is Less Likely to Form after a Back or Neck Procedure if it’s Performed at LSI

One of the largest problems with traditional back or neck surgery is the formation of scar tissue. In the body’s attempt to heal itself, it creates tough, fibrous tissue to repair muscle, skin and other body parts that were cut or torn during the surgery. When this happens internally near the spine, the scar tissue can build up and press on nerves exiting the spinal canal, causing back or neck pain, the very problem you were trying to solve. This is less of an issue, however, with back and neck procedures at Laser Spine Institute (LSI). We make only one small incision in the back and use a tube to access the procedure site. Muscle and other tissue are gently pushed aside, rather than cut through, and tiny, precise tools are used to treat the back or neck problem.  All of these efforts result in only a minimal amount of tissue damage, so the amount of scar tissue that forms is equally small. This increases your chances of being free from back or neck pain once and for all. 

Why Scar Tissue Causes Back Pain

When scar tissue forms near the nerve root, it’s called epidural fibrosis. Epidural fibrosis is a common occurrence after back surgeries. This is so common that it often occurs in patients with both successful surgical outcomes as well as patients that continue to have the leg and back pain they felt before the surgery.

What is Scar Tissue

The fibrous tissue that the body creates to replace damaged skin is called a scar.  Scars are also know as cicatrices and are formed as a biological response for repairing skin and other tissue damage in the human body.  Although they are most often not considered pretty to look at, a scar is a natural part of the body’s healing process.  Every wound will result in some form of scarring dependant on its severity.

Surgery for Scar Tissue Removal

Many people suffer from the pain of scar tissue in the back and often wonder how to remove scar tissue.  A laminotomy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that removes painful scar tissue.

Percutaneous Discectomy Procedure to Prevent Scar Tissue in the Back

The goal of the percutaneous discectomy is to achieve pain relief through the removal of damaged material that is placing pressure on the never root or spinal cord.

When a traditional percutaneous arthroscopic laser discectomy is preformed, the surgeon is aided with the use of X-Ray monitoring and fiber optics that result in a picture being displayed on a monitor.  With this technique the surgeon is able to follow the progress in a real time environment seeing the nerve that is being compressed by the herniated disc material.  This allows the surgeon the ability to be certain that the material he or she is vaporizing with the laser is correct and providing a much higher rate of success.

What Causes Scar Tissue

Scar tissue forms mostly in muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and joints. This is dead fibrotic tissues which is also called an adhesion.

Scar Tissue Symptoms

When dealing with the word heal in this article we will think of that word in relation to when scar tissue is loaded up on the location of a traumatic injury. The scar tissue known as fibrosis usually decreases the natural movement of the injured area and gives a “tethered” effect. A few other common joints that can be affected by fibrosis include the knee, hip, elbow, wrist, and ankle or should joints.

Scar Tissue Removal

Scar tissue forming near the nerve root is called epidural fibrosis. This epidural fibrosis is a common occurrence after back surgery has been preformed. The formation of scar tissue is part of a normal healing process the body goes through after spine surgery. Unfortunately the build-up of this scar tissue can cause nerve impingements causing back pain and/or leg pain. There are successful procedures performed by surgeons called a Laminotomy.

Prevent Scar Tissue

Scar tissue after back surgery is a problem that researchers have been trying to find a way to prevent. This study that I read is the first known study to include humans. Low-dose radiation is being used as a treatment for scar tissue build up. After 24 hours the radiation process takes place followed by a second operation to remove the scar tissue.

Minimally Invasive Surgery to Help Prevent Scar Tissue

Minimally invasive surgery is an advanced technology used to treat spinal conditions with minimal scar tissue in the spine formation, blood loss, and no implemented hardware (fusion materials) that can cause possible complications.

To fully understand the difference between conventional open back surgery and minimally invasive surgery we should compare the two.