What is Scar Tissue?
Scar tissue formation is a natural and unavoidable process of healing. When an injury occurs, the body goes through four stages of healing.
- Haemostasis – clot and stop the bleeding
- Inflammation / Immune response – clean up and remove waste & debris
- Proliferation – reconnect the damage fibers
- Remodeling – rebuild the structure
Scar tissue formation happens in stages 3 & 4. The body works quickly in damage control, to close the site, creating an unruly mess of collagen fibers. When they overgrow, they can clump together into tough scar tissue, resistant to pulling and stretching techniques.
These fibers can become quite tight and restrictive to the structures around it, sensitivities can occur due to the entrapment of nerves in the scar…. Which often result in pain, mobility issues, and many other problems.
Early intervention during stages 1, 2 & 3 is beneficial to realign the fresh new fibers, clean up the environment, give it a nice smooth finish, and create better flexibility within the fibers to allow freeform and movement from other internal structures (incl. organs)
However, if the treatment you seek is well after the fact, don’t worry, it may take a bit more time, but it will create change, break up the scar and help to rebuild and free the skin with the techniques used by Sal mentioned below.
Types of Scars
- Flat – usually raised at first, then smooth and flatten out. Tend to be pale pink or red in colour.
- Contracture – typically forms after a burn, is tight and restrictive with movement, especially around a joint, muscle or nerve.
- Adhesions – bands of internal scar tissue that adheres organs and tissue together, most commonly occurs in the abdomen. E.g after endometriosis removal surgeries.
- Raised – hypertrophic scars, may become smaller but never fully flatten
- Keloid – raised scars that broaden, can become so large they impact movement
- Stretch marks – appear after the skin rapidly shrinks or expands (puberty, weight loss, weight gain, pregnancy)
- Hematoma pocket of trapped blood
- Seroma pocket of trapped fluid, especially after a surgery
Scars can also be caused by illness or diseases such as chickenpox, scleroderma, or skin conditions like acne, psoriasis, typically treated by topical creams, but can also benefit greatly from manual lymph drainage.
Treatment for Scar Tissue
Treatment duration for scars depends on few things:
- Age of client and integrity of the skin
- Age of the scar
- Home care and due diligence
- Size of scar and surrounding fibrosis
- Impact at time of injury (depth)
- Frequency of treatment
Some scars respond really well to treatment straight away, but for others it may take a bit of repetitive work.
Usually, the age of the scar, age of the client, and integrity of the skin determines how quickly your skin and surrounding tissue bounces back.
The treatment styles used at Sal’s includes:
- Scar tissue release therapy: A gentle technique that uses fingertip pressure to reduce pain, adhesions, and the appearance of scar tissue.
- Physical therapy: Using techniques such as massage, cupping, dry needling, and myofascial release to improve blood flow, and separate and realign collagen fibers.
- Gha Sha / Scrapping Technique: use of Gha sha tools to break up scar tissue and restore mobility.
- Active Release Therapy apply manual tension to the muscle while the patient lengthens it.
- Assisted Stretching: added stretching exercises to increase mobility and flexibility.
And one of Sal’s favourite that works really well in conjunction with above styles is… Low Level Laser Therapy – a handheld infra-red laser operating at a wavelength of 904 nanometers. It penetrates deeply into the tissue, activating and energising our cells into repair mode, softening the scar tissue, allowing it to break down and and be worked into smoother aligned fibers.
Primarily used for:
- Lymphedema to energise activity from a cell level and decongest stagnant lymph
- Slow healing skin wounds
- Fibrosis & scar tissue
- Sprained and strained ligaments
- Tendon injuries
- Muscle soreness
Treatment Services / Modalities Used
No 2 treatment styles are the same, it’s about how you present and what you need.
The services Sal provides include:
- Manual Lymph Drainage
- Massage for the high oedema and firmer tissue
- Low Level Laser Therapy
- Scar & Fibrosis Therapy
- Wound Care
See the Lymphatics tab on the main menu for detailed explanation of services.
What does internal scar tissue feel like?
Internal scar tissue overgrowth can cause pain, stiffness, itching or numbness.
Those with adhesions may feel the scars are pulling on internal structures, causing pain, tightness that often increases with movement. Adhesions near joints can significantly impact function and mobility. A good example of this may be after endometriosis laser or removal (burn) surgeries. Often a repetitive surgery with adhesion accumulating and adhering to other structures and organs.
The information in the drop downs below is also on the Surgery Care page and relevant to scar tissue as well.