Bowel and mesenteric injuries from blunt abdominal trauma: a review

The bowel and the mesentery represent the third most frequently involved structures in blunt abdominal trauma after the liver and the spleen. Clinical assessment alone in patients with suspected intestinal and/or mesenteric injury from blunt abdominal trauma is associated with unacceptable diagnostic delays. Multi-detector computed tomography, thanks to its high spatial, time and contrast resolutions, allows a prompt identification and proper classification of such conditions. The radiologist, in fact, is asked not only to identify the signs of trauma but also to provide an indication of their clinical significance, suggesting the chance of conservative treatment in the cases of mild and moderate, non-complicated or self-limiting injuries and focusing on life-threatening conditions which may benefit from immediate surgical or interventional procedures. Specific and non-specific CT signs of bowel and mesenteric injuries from blunt abdominal trauma are reviewed in this paper.