Prospective evaluation of abdominal sonography for the diagnosis of bowel obstruction

The authors determined the utility of sonography compared with plain x-rays in the diagnosis of bowel obstruction. In a contemporaneous group of patients, they compared the cost of operative versus nonoperative management of small bowel obstruction.

Nonoperative treatment of simple bowel obstruction usually succeeds. However, because of the difficulty in assured diagnosis and the possibility of strangulation or other complication, exploration of suspected bowel obstruction is recommended. Most of these explorations could be avoided if diagnostic accuracy were better, yielding a desirable decrease in the overall cost of managing bowel obstruction.

Fifty patients whose clinical or plain x-ray findings suggested bowel obstruction underwent prospective evaluation by abdominal sonography and by flat and upright abdominal x-rays. Presence or absence of bowel obstruction was determined at laparotomy and by clinical evolution of the abdominal episode. Direct costs of care were determined from the hospital and physician bills of 54 patients treated contemporaneously with the sonography study.

Sonography demonstrated bowel obstruction by showing fluid-filled dilated bowel loops proximal to collapsed bowel in 22 patients with one false-positive and three false-negative examinations. X-rays demonstrated bowel obstruction in 32 patients with nine false-positive and one false-negative examination. Cost data showed that operative treatment of simple bowel obstruction increased costs nearly eightfold.

Sonography is as sensitive but more specific than plain x-rays in the diagnosis of bowel obstruction. Management based on sonographic findings has the potential to reduce costs of surgical care.