Many faces of acute bowel ischemia: overview of radiologic staging

Acute bowel ischemia (ABI) can be life threatening with high mortality rate. In spite of the advances made in diagnosis and treatment of ABI, no significant change has occurred in the mortality over the past decade. ABI is potentially reversible with prompt diagnosis. The radiologist plays a central role in the initial diagnosis and preventing progression to irreversible intestinal ischemic injury or bowel necrosis. The most single imaging findings described in the literature are either non-specific or only present in the late stages of ABI, urging the use of a constellation of features to reach a more confident diagnosis. While ABI has been traditionally categorized based on the etiology with a wide spectrum of imaging findings overlapped with each other, the final decision for patient's management is usually made on the stage of the ABI with respect to the underlying pathophysiology. In this review, we first discuss the pathologic stages of ischemia and then summarize the various imaging signs and causes of ABI. We also emphasize on the correlation of imaging findings and pathological staging of the disease. Finally, a management approach is proposed using combined clinical and radiological findings to determine whether the patient may benefit from surgery or not.