Dr. Barry Triestman, d.c.

Symptoms of Scar Tissue (Adhesions) in Truckee and Tahoe

Scar tissue will decrease your range of motion which may give you a feeling of tightness or not being able to move the joint normally. They will also affect the quality of movement, it will not feel fluid. If the adhesion affects a nerve from moving properly you will get abnormal sensations like numbness, tingling and pain. If it affects a muscle you will have a decrease in strength, a decreased range of motion and muscle may feel stuck. This may also feel like a pulling or possibly a dragging sensation when you move.
 

Formation of Scar Tissue

Normally tissues move in a very fluid and smooth way over each other as if they are oiled with a lubricant like oil. This is because of the smooth surfaces and body fluids ensure this.  I will use a muscle as the example tissue but the tendons, ligaments, joint capsules and nerve sheaths are all built similarly just with a different pattern. Our muscles are made of collagen which is like a strand in a rope, when we put the many strands together bound in a very specific way we get a beautifully functioning muscle. After either a single event like a fall or surgery or more commonly a repetitive micro trauma injury, the body lays down scar tissue as part of the healing process. This laying down of scar tissue is the first phase of rebuilding our injured tissue, the second phase is that the scar tissue is replaced by normal tissue, often this does not happen and we are left with scar tissue. If we go back to the rope analogy the rope, when it is scared it is frayed, twisted, kinked and bent. The reason that the tissue do not go back to normal is that the body needs to have ideal biomechical force put on it and tissues will go back to normal. When we have, abnormal movement from scar tissue, poor habits, poor posture, abnormal ergonomics we do not have ideal biomechanical forces and these both create and promote the formation of additional scar tissue.   
 
Let’s make this more concrete with some examples. If you have a knee injury and are running along one of Truckee’s trails and have one or more of the following flat/ high arched feet, tight hamstrings, calf’s, plantar fascia, ilio-tibal band, a muscular imbalance between groups of muscle i.e. hamstrings, quadriceps, improper control of the pelvis then you have abnormal biomechanics. Wrist and hand pain like carpal tunnel is another good example. Scar tissue will form by poor work station set up, poor posture of the neck, back shoulder, wrist, muscle imbalance of the back and front of the shoulder, tight muscles, poor movement patterns and previous injury.
 
You repair the body by finding the causes, a through examination of not just were it hurts but at the rest of the body, we pay closer attention to the joints, muscle, nearest the inured area but still look at the whole body. We then use Active Release Techniques to break up the scar tissue and correct the other problems with rehabilitation, chiropractic, pilates, stretching, ergonomic correction, lifestyle and biomechanical corrections. The more I learn about the body the more I realize that the pinky bone is connected to the ear bone and the importance of examining the whole body.