Blood Loss=Scar Tissue??

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janiee08

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I always knew I lost a lot of blood (3500cc) during my half dozen fusion in Oct. of '07. Having read so much on this forum, the internet and books, I am wondering if this blood loss has caused the scar tissue that has caused me so much pain. This is the conclusion I am coming to and wanted the input of others on this board. I have read that scar tissue is usually caused by blood loss, esp. from bleeding into the epidural space after back surgery. Does anyone agree with this?? I already understand that scarring can also be caused when a disk ruptures and it's insides leak out. Any info. would be greatly appreciated. Hope everyone has a pain free Fourth of July;)--janiee08.
 
janiee08,

I am no expert on this and would love to learn more about it myself.

I had an L4/L5 decompression surgery last summer and suffered a massive hematoma (pool of blood that turns into a clot) from the surgery. They normally don't use a drainage tube for minimal surgeries such as this. A week after surgery my incision started draining excessively and got infected, and two weeks after surgery I ended up having another surgery to clean everything out.

I had an L4/L5 fusion surgery about a month ago and the surgeon said I had extensive scar tissue from the first surgery. He said he removed as much as he could.

So did the scar tissue I had come from the hematoma? I am scared to death that it will come back after this recent surgery for me. My surgeon's nurse told me to stay as active as I can and change positions frequently over the next few months to try preventing it, but she said sometimes it just forms no matter what you do.

I know I have read that if a muscle suffers a deep bruise (hematoma), then scar tissue will often form inside and outside the muscle and can sometimes cause adhesions to surrounding tissues such as nerves. This is what causes many cases of Piriformis Syndrome where the piriformis muscle gets a deep bruise, and forms scar tissue adhesions to the sciatic nerve as it exits the pelvis as they lie next to each other.

I would love to hear any input others have!
 
Brendaks, Thanks so much for sharing your story. I do hope others chime in as well. Happy Fourth of July!!--Janiee08.
 
i really don't know whether or not actual blood loss can actually lead to this or not, but i can tell you just from my two seperate c spine surgeries i had to have within only a nine month perod i somehow managed to develop ALOT of scar tissue on the inner(inside my neck) surgical area to the point my NS told me it took him like an hour and a half just to actually just cut thru it to reach the spinal column to place my hardware. he just stated it was very thick and fiberous, but i only had lost a "very minimal" amount of blood during my surgery from what was actually in my op notes from that first surgery. i just think in many cases, some people will develop scar tissue much more readily than others.

tho i personally have never heard the blood loss scar tissue connection, anything is possible when it comes to the human body. that much i DO know. i just don't really understand just how one could affect the other in some way, you know what i mean? unless it comes down to a chronic type of simple inflammation type of thing maybe? anytime blood is sitting in an area its not supposed to be, it can irritate the areas in certain ways, it would really depend upon just how reactive that area is to blood products. but only having "just" blood loss from a surgical procedure, that would seem a bit odd since there would be no real connection between the two themselves type thing? not that i am aware of anyway. interesting topic tho. i hope you find some answers with this.

but creation of any scar tissue is really a very basic body response to any level of injury or insult to the body. too much would be kind of a hyper uncontrollable type thing in some ways? just finding out/researching what actually stimulates scar tissue growth itself within what body system, may help in giving you some good reasons for it. just a thought. if you do happen to find this out, please pop back in and let us know? just curious why half my neck feels wayyy too solid in there with it. marcia
 
I can certainly understand how anyone without blood loss can get scar tissue. However, I guess I was looking @ it from the viewpoint of the causes of Arachnoiditis. My NS said I had it, yet my PM doc simply said it was scar tissue. So I started researching ARC (Arachnoiditis) and I found for i.e. that it can be difficult to diagnose even by CT scans and MRI. If you look up ARC, esp. the causes of it, one source says the following: (I'm not quoting directly), spinal surgery could be a cause usually from rent? of the dura with BLOOD entering the sac. Today, this is the most common cause. There are other sources that state BLOOD is a terrible irritant to the blood sac. In any event maybe I am just barking up the wrong tree;lol. I have my next appt. with my PM doc in about a week and will ask him then. --janiee08
 
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