The role of multidetector computed tomography in evaluation of small bowel obstructions

Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate therole and additional diagnostic contribution of multi-detectorcomputed tomography (MDCT) in patients with acuteabdominal pain caused by small bowel obstruction.Materials and methods: A total of 48 patients who admittedto our hospital with acute abdominal pain and underwentMDCT on suspicion of intestinal obstruction and hadabdominal surgery between January 2012 and October2012 were included to our study. MDCT images were interpretedby two experienced radiologist retrospectively.All clinical data and surgery notes also were evaluated.Patients had surgery due to penetrating or blunt abdominalinjury were excluded.Results: Of these 48 patients, 26 (54.1%) were male and22 (45.9%) were female. Patients’ ages ranged 25 to 71and mean age was 52±5.4 years. The causes of intestinalobstruction of patients were adhesions for 12 (46.1%) patients,tumors for 7 (26.9%) patients, external hernias for5 (19.2%) patients, internal hernia for 1 (3.9%) patient andintussusception for 1 (3.9%) patient. A total concordancebetween the MDCT findings and definitive diagnosis wasfound in 26 of 23 cases and the sensitivity and specifityof MDCT in the diagnosis of small bowel obstruction werefound to be 88.5% and 90%, respectively.Conclusion: MDCT is a fast, effective and reliable imagingmethod for preoperative diagnosing small bowel obstructioncauses acute abdominal pain with the advantagesof MDCT such as multi-planar and three-dimensionalreformatted imaging.Key words: Acute abdominal pain, multi-detector computed tomography, small bowel obstruction