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Some people form adhesions more easily than others. Bands of tough, string-like fibrous tissue , adhesions may form spontaneously but are more common after surgery, where the disturbances caused by tissue manipulations may lead to healing in the form of fibrous tissue, i.e. adhesions.

If adhesions interfere with the normal motion of the intestines, a blockage or obstruction may occur, with food, liquid, or even air unable to pass the blocked area. Severe bloating , abdominal pain , vomiting and constipation occur. In such a serious situation, immediate surgery to cut the obstructive adhesion bands is often necessary.

In many cases the possibility of adhesions wrongly get the rap for abdominal pain. A frequent cause for such pain is a spasm of the muscles responsible for peristalsis , which propels the bolus through the intestine. Muscle spasms in the calf are referred to as charley horse, spasms in your intestine are essentially the same thing but assume the name i rritable intestine ”

The removal of the colon does not guarantee immunity from painful spasms in the small intestine. Thus, the ileostomate occasionally may suffer from pain that can’t readily be explained on the basis of blockage, and may be told that adhesions are responsible while the cause may be a spasm.