Diagnosis of intestinal obstruction by abdominal plain film radiography and CT

Objective:To study the value of abdominal plain film radiography and CT in the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction.Methods:56 patients with intestinal obstruction confirmed by surgery were included in this study. They involved 29men and 27women, aged 2～73years (average age 42.3±11.5years). All of them had both abdominal plain film radiography and CT examination before surgery.The manifestation of abdominal CT and radiography were compared with that of surgery to study the accuracy of two approaches in determining the existences, locations, types and causes of intestinal obstruction. Results:In the 56 patients with intestinal obstruction, the accuracy of CT and radiography was 98% (55/56) and 80.4% (45/56) in determining the existence (P0.05), and 89.3% (50/56) and 67.9% (38/56) in determining the locations of intestinal obstruction (P0.05) respectively. For various types of intestinal obstruction, the diagnostic accuracy of CT and radiography was 92.3% (36/39) and 89.7% (35/39) in 39 patients with simple mechanical intestinal obstruction (P0.05); 90.0% (9/10) and 10% (1/10) in 10 patients was strangulate intestinal obstruction (P0 05); and 87.5% (7/8) and 62.5% (5/8) in 8 patients with paralytic intestinal obstruction (P0.05) respectively. The accuracy of CT and radiography was 89.3% (50/56) and 50.0% (28/56) in determining the causes of intestinal obstruction (P0.01) respectively.Conclusion:Both abdominal plain film radiography and CT scan had the ability to diagnose intestinal obstruction. But CT examination was superior to radiography in determining the locations, types and causes of intestinal obstruction.