Right now, doctors have somewhere between 12 to 90 different methods of adhesion prevention available. Everything from harmonic scalpels that vibrate and cut with less trauma, to heated humidified CO2 air compressors to inflate the abdomen, to simply injecting massive amounts of saline liquid to dilute and wash away fibrin.
I think it's time someone did a "meta-analysis" of all this. Now that we have the new fMRI technique, doctors will be able to measure the effectiveness of these methods quickly and accurately. It's time to call for research.
Citation: Sonja Buhmann-Kirchhoff, Reinhold Lang, Chlodwig Kirchhoff, Heinrich Otto Steitz, Karl Walter Jauch, Maximilian Reiser and Andreas Lienemann, European Radiology, June 2008, Functional cine MR Imaging for the Detection and Mapping of Intraabdominal Adhesions: Method and Surgical Correlation,
US House Representative Tom Price of Georgia is opposing the new Federal Council. He doesn't like the government telling doctors what's best. He thinks it should be a private decision. I suggest we write letters informing him of the need for "meta-analysis" Because if the government doesn't do it, I'm afraid there's no incentive for anyone else to do it. Functional cine MRI is expensive.
Write the congresspeople in your own district, too. As your representative, they are required to respond. Write the surgeon-general, too.
Now, this is just me talking. If the International Adhesion Society has an advisory committee of doctors, I'd love to hear from them. Perhaps the Adhesions Foundation can offer advice, too. Maybe I'm off-target and our efforts are better directed toward something else. But this is what makes sense to me.
Yours,
-- Mark in Seattle