Complications From Internal Scars

Chances are that almost every single person has at least one scar on the surface of his or her skin. When the skin suffers from a gash, it knits back together in a process called scarring. However, you may not know that the internal organs and tissue form scars as well. Frustratingly, though, complications from these internal scars can be very difficult to detect until they suddenly cause terrible health problems.

For small, minor injuries, your body tissue may be able to replace itself without forming a scar. However, for most injuries, the damaged area is replaced with slightly inferior tissue that simply holds your body together. This is why external skin scars often appear paler than the rest of your skin--the scar tissue cannot form blood vessels necessary to keep the scar bright and healthy-looking like the rest of your skin. Thus, because this tissue merely acts as a placeholder, it may not be able to perform the same functions as the original tissue.

When you undergo surgery, doctors must cut through several different layers of tissue in order to perform the operation. Subsequently, each layer of tissue can develop a scar. Sometimes, the internal tissue can form adhesions. These occur when scar tissue abnormally joins two different parts of your body, or when the scarring causes organs to close. For instance, if you have a surgery that requires doctors to cut through your intestines or near your intestines, the scar tissue can cause adhesions that close off the intestines. This leads to intestinal blockages that can later spill over into septic shock.

Now, surgeons can use special tissue barriers as well as precise incisions and sutures to help tissue heal as normally as possible. However, if they make mistakes with this process, it can make you much more likely to develop health problems from internal adhesions.

If you have suffered from internal scar complications due to medical negligence, you should contact a Philadelphia surgical errors attorney from Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C., today.