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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Multimodality Diagnosis of Mesenteric Ischemia
Published on: July 21, 2023
Radiologic diagnosis of gastrointestinal perforation
Stephen E Rubesin1, Marc S Levine
1Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. rubesin@oasis.rad.upenn.edu
Abstract:
Perforations of the gastrointestinal tract have many causes. Holes in the wall of gastrointestinal organs can be created by blunt or penetrating trauma, iatrogenic injury, inflammatory conditions that penetrate the serosa or adventitia, extrinsic neoplasms that invade the gastrointestinal tract, or primary neoplasms that penetrate outside the wall of gastrointestinal organs. This article provides a radiologic approach for investigating the wide variety of gastrointestinal perforations. General principles about contrast agents and studies are reviewed, and then perforations in specific gastrointestinal organs are discussed.
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