What is epidural lysis of adhesions and who needs it?

Epidural lysis of adhesions is a procedure that breaks up scar tissue around the nerves in your spine. When scar tissue forms, often after back surgery, it can trap and irritate nerves, causing ongoing pain that other treatments have not relieved. This procedure aims to free those nerves.

If you feel back or leg pain that started or continued after spine surgery, and standard injections have not helped, scar tissue may be part of the reason. This situation is sometimes called failed back surgery syndrome, a term simply meaning pain that persists despite surgery.

During the procedure, a thin catheter is guided into the epidural space near the affected nerves. Medicine is then used to help dissolve and separate the scar tissue, which can reduce the pull and pressure on the nerves and allow other injected medicines to reach the area more effectively.

If you feel pain that seems stuck and does not respond to usual injections, that resistance can be a clue that scar tissue is blocking the medicine from reaching the nerve. Clearing that tissue is what this procedure is designed to do.

It is generally considered after other options have been tried, and it suits specific situations rather than every kind of back pain. Your specialist decides whether your history and imaging point to scar tissue as the likely problem.

If you feel like your pain has a history tied to previous surgery or repeated procedures, share that timeline. Knowing when your pain began relative to any surgery helps your specialist judge whether scar tissue is involved and whether lysis of adhesions is a reasonable option for you.

This is general information, not medical advice. Whether a treatment is right for you is determined by a physician after an evaluation.