The role of computer tomography in the evaluation of location and etiology of acute mechanical intestinal obstruction

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of computer tomography (CT) in the judgment of location and etiology of acute mechanical intestinal obstruction(AMIO). Sixty-four patients with AMIO were retrospectively reviewed. Two experienced radiologists retrospectively analyzed the CT and X-ray films by double blind method. The evaluation results of ultrasonography examination were from the original medical reports. The final diagnosis of AMIO was based on the intraoperative findings and pathological examinations. The judgement accuracy of location and etiology were compared among different image examination methods. The accuracy of CT (62.5%, 45.3%) in the evaluation of location and etiology were significantly higher than X-ray (15.6%,0) and ultrasonography (14.1%, 21.9%) examinations, especially in the distal AMIO. It is concluded that CT plays an important role in the evaluation of location and etiology of AMIO.