What is Post Surgical Scar Tissue Release?
What is post surgical scar tissue release? It’s a specific modality focused on restoring optimal health to soft tissue after a surgical event.
Let's start with a little physiology lesson. Muscle fibers, ligaments, and tendons have a specific direction the fibers go. It works kind of like the lanes of a road. Everything goes smoothly as long as all of the cars follow the lane markers. This is called a striated tissue. Most of the muscle tissue in the body is striated in this way.
Scar tissue, on the other hand, is what’s called an omnidirectional fiber. Have you ever dropped a cup of pens on the ground? Notice how they point in every direction at once? That’s how scar tissue forms. In our body’s infinite wisdom, it decided this was the best way to repair soft tissue, having the fibers go in every direction at once. The main problem with this is, when the muscles around the scar tissue contract, it can create microtears in the soft tissue where the scar meets the healthy muscle, causing the scar tissue to grow.
Stages of Healing
For post surgical healing, we separate it into 3 different categories -
Inflammation - The initial healing phase when the surgical site is Red, Hot, Swollen, and Painful. The body focuses on reducing the chances of infection and increasing the blood flow to the area. It generally lasts from 1 to 3 days.
Proliferation - This is when the collagen starts to form and the healing process shifts from infection prevention to rebuilding the tissue. This step generally goes from 4 to 21 days.
Remodeling - This is when those omnidirectional fibers start to form and the collagen from the hardens into scar tissue. Generally last from 21 days up to a year, depending on the size of the incision site and its location.
When is the best time to start this modality for your recovery?
The “golden window” to start this modality is when the site is in the Remodeling Phase. This is when the scar tissue is most able to be manipulated and reformed. Once you pass through the remodeling phase, it’s absolutely still possible to work with the scar tissue. It will just take significantly longer to get the desired results. I have worked with surgical sites that are over 20 years old with success in my approaches.
With Post Surgical Scar Tissue Release, we go in and utilize a few techniques to break down and reform that omnidirectional tissue to reform in a more striated way to follow the striations of the tissue it’s connected to.
A few of the common techniques used in this modality are
Cross Fiber Friction - Working in a perpendicular direction to the striations to straighten them out in the correct direction.
Fascial Shearing - This one sounds scarier than it actually is, I promise. It works in a similar way to Cross Fiber Friction but, working on a more global scale than a local one.
Joint Mobilization - This technique is mostly used for joint replacements. It’s where I move you through various ranges of motion to increase the elasticity of the ligaments surrounding the joint.
The main benefits of utilizing this modality are:
Increasing local blood flow to the area.
Increasing lymphatic flow to the area.
Reducing restrictions in the fascial structure.
Localized increase in muscular strength.
Long term reduction of pain in the surrounding soft tissue.
Better mobility in the region that was addressed.
Better outcomes in long term pain reduction and functionality.
Do you have a new or old surgical site you would like to try this with? Want to find out if it can help you? Book an appointment now to find out!
