Spectrum of MDCT Findings in Bowel Obstruction in a Tertiary Care Rural Hospital in Northern India

Multidetector Computed Tomography (MDCT) provides clinically and surgically important information in bowel obstruction. It can depict the severity, level and cause of obstruction.

To depict the spectrum of MDCT findings in cases of small and large bowel obstruction.

Contrast enhanced MDCT examination of 50 patients were retrospectively included in the study who had evidence of clinical as well as MDCT evidence of bowel obstruction and in whom surgical/clinical follow-up for final diagnosis was available. CT scan was done in all the patients with Ingenuity CT (128 slice MDCT, Philips Medical Systems). The axial sections were reconstructed in coronal and sagital planes to determine site and cause of bowel obstruction.

There were 34 males and 16 females patients in this study with mean age of 28.4 years. The level of obstruction was in small bowel in 39 patients (76.67%) and large bowel in 11 patients (23.33%). Adhesive bands were the cause of Small Bowel Obstruction (SBO) in 17 patients (43.5% of SBO patients). The most common CT signs in adhesive band SBO were beak sign (seen in 70.6% patients) and fat notch sign (52.9% patients). Five cases of SBO were secondary to benign stricture. Matted adhesions were the cause of obstruction in 3 patients. All these patients showed transition zone in pelvis with positive small bowel faeces sign. Two patients with SBO due to adhesive band had evidence of closed loop obstruction with evidence of gangrenous gut on surgery. Large Bowel Obstruction (LBO) was seen in 11 patients. Most common cause of LBO was primary colonic malignancy, accounting for 7 patients (63.6%). In one patient, the cause was direct invasion of hepatic flexure by carcinoma of gall bladder. Other causes of LBO were pelvic adhesions, faecal impaction and ischaemic stricture.

SBO is more common than LBO with adhesive bands being the most common cause of SBO. MDCT is very useful for depicting site and cause of obstruction and any associated complications.