Postoperative adhesions causing colon obstruction.

Intermittent abdominal distention and chronic abdominal pain with constipation are common complaints among middle-aged women who have previously undergone pelvic surgery. These patients are frequently diagnosed as having problems that are psychosomatic in origin. This article reports four female patients seen between 1979 and 1980 who had undergone previous pelvic surgery and had such complaints. All were diagnosed preoperatively by colonoscopic examination as having partial left colon obstruction caused by postoperative adhesions, a previously unreported disease. Successful treatment consisted of lysis of adhesions, reperitonealization of the pelvis, and restoration of the colon to its normal anatomic position.