What is Scar Tissue

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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 depending on its severity.

The human body’s healing process tries hard to repair the skin but it does not get it completely right so to say. The scar tissue intended to replace the skin will most of the time be of less functional quality then the original skin. There are a few examples of tissues that heal without any structural defects or deterioration of function such as a bone break. A break in a bone that is healed will often be more structurally sound then before the break.

Internal Scar Tissue

With vast improvements in technology, modern surgery has helped to save many a life from serious problems ranging from gallstones to appendicitis. These serious illnesses were at one point considered very dangerous, but with modern technology they are no longer classified as being that dangerous. Even though you may think that after your surgery everything is fine, most often it is not. This is due to the fact that surgery induces the body’s natural healing abilities creating internal scar tissue where the muscles and tissue have been cut or torn.

It is important to note that internal scar tissue is different then “normal” scar tissue. internal scar tissue will often create tethers, barriers and adhesions to internal body structures pulling them out of place and often causing back pain and neck pain.

Two ways that surgical scar tissue differs from external scar tissue

Tethers - Imagine that when performing surgery you need to cut through tissue to get to the area you want to affect. This tissue is not just connected in the area that is cut but can travel throughout the body. When the tissue is sutured or stitched up, this can create a tethering effect that can in essence cause painful symptoms throughout the body.

Biological Barrier - A biological barrier forms when the cut that forms the scar tissue is made with a shard object (such as a scalpel) leaving an impenetrable wall that will not heal properly over time. To further understand this, we can compare it to transplanting a plant to a large pot. If you try to plant the plant in a larger pot without first roughening up the root ends (from a clean cut) the roots will not take because in essence they have created a biological barrier.

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