Bowel obstruction by a foreign body is rare. The authors describe the case of a 77-year-old woman who had small-bowel obstruction due to a foreign body 40 years after a transabdominal hysterectomy. A loop of small bowel had herniated through a metal ring and had become necrotic. The ring and involved bowel were excised and the patient's clinical course was uncomplicated. The original purpose of...

Address for Correspondence: Linda Pantongrag-Brown, M.D., AIMC, Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. The small-bowel feces sign is a finding found at CT of the abdomen. It is defined by the presence of fecal-like material mixed with gas bubbles in the dilated lumen of the small intestine, usually seen prior to the point of obstruction. It is the result of delayed small-bowel transit t...

Acute appendicitis is a common surgical problem however the diagnosis is often overlooked when it presents as a small bowel obstruction. In this report we present two cases of elderly patients who presented with small bowel obstruction and raised inflammatory markers. Both patients were successfully treated with a laparotomy, adhesiolysis and appendicectomy and went on to make a good recovery.

Legionnaires' disease may present with a broad spectrum of illnesses and nonspecific extrapulmonary symptoms including diarrhea. To our knowledge, bowel obstruction has not been reported as a manifestation of Legionella. We present a unique case of Legionnaires' disease contributing to a small bowel obstruction.

Gallstone ileus is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction which usually presents in elderly female patients and which has been associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. We present the case of a 63-year-old man who presented at our institution with symptoms of bowel obstruction. Abdominal X-ray and exploratory laparotomy revealed a large gallstone in the terminal ileus.

Gastrointestinal motility and plasma PYY levels were investigated under chronic progressive large bowel obstruction in dogs. The obstruction device was applied around the descending colon at a laparotomy and gastrointestinal motility was recorded with strain gauge force transducers in the conscious state. Complete obstruction occurred at 26 days (21-33 days). The duration of postprandial interr...

Small bowel obstruction is a common clinical problem presenting with abdominal distention, colicky pain, absolute constipation and bilious vomiting. There are numerous causes, most commonly attributed to an incarcerated hernia, adhesions or obstructing mass secondary to malignancy. Here we present an unusual cause of a small bowel obstruction secondary to an incarcerated incisional hernia in as...

BACKGROUND Enterolithiasis of the small bowel is a rare phenomenon in humans although it has been frequently described in equines. Primary enteroliths have been described including those occurring secondary to conditions like Crohn's disease, small bowel diverticula, tuberculous or postoperative strictures, and blind loops but those occurring in an otherwise normal gut are exceedingly rare. Of ...

Over the past decade, capsule endoscopy has become the accepted modality for small bowel imaging in the United States. It is very helpful in making the diagnosis of Crohn's disease; however, this patient population is also at an increased risk of small bowel obstruction secondary to capsule impaction. We present the case of a 60-year-old female with undiagnosed Crohn's disease who presented to ...

After uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), the development of intra-abdominal adhesions, especially those involving the bowel, is a very rare complication. Seven months after UFE, a patient had a complete small bowel obstruction develop that was caused by an adhesive band between the posterior fibroid and cul-de-sac. She underwent an exploratory laparotomy, lysis of adhesion, and myomectomy. No ...