Obstruction ofthe Small Intestine: Accuracy and Role ofCT In Diagnosis'

The reliability of abdominal cornputed tomography (CT) in the assessment of varying degrees of small bowel obstruction (SBO) was evaluated by using results at enteroclysis and clinical outcome as standards of reference. A blinded retrospective analysis was performed of the studies of 55 patients who underwent both CT and enteroclysis in the course of assessment for suspected SBO. Nine patients had no obstruction, 40 patients had obstruction due to adhesions, and six patients had tumorrelated obstruction. CT results were used to identify correctly 63% (29 of 46) of those who had SBO and 78% (seven of nine) of the patients who did noL The overall accuracy of the CT interpretations to help establish diagnosis was 65% (36 of 55). When obstructions were classified into lowand high-grade partial obstruction, CT results could be used to identify correctly 81% (17 of 21) of high-grade SBOs and 48% (12 of 2,5) of low-grade SBOs. The procedure yielded two false-positive and 13 false-negative results for patients with low-grade