The use of MRI in bowel obstruction

Nine patients with clinical or radiographic evidences of bowel obstruction were examined by magnetic resonance imaging. Retrograde insufflation of 1000-1200 ml of air through a Foley catheter placed in the rectum was employed. Scopolamine was used to inhibit bowel peristalsis and possibly relax the ileocecal valve. The administered air successfully distended the colon and the small bowel distal to the obstruction in seven of the nine cases. The air-filled small bowel loops were useful in delineating the obstruction sites and adjacent lesions in these seven cases. The diagnosis was established by means of surgery in six cases and by clinical course in three cases. The causes of obstruction included four peritoneal carcinomatoses, and one each of supravesical hernia, intussusception, adhesive band, benign granulomatous stricture, and radiational stricture. The site of obstruction was the distal small bowel in eight cases, and the rectosigmoid colon in one case.