UMEM Educational Pearls

Small Bowel Obstruction

  • Although it takes about 11 minutes to diagnose SBO on ultrasound, newer studies have shown a decrease in sensitivity and specificity of SBO with 11 false negatives and 57 fall positives. So PLEASE BE CAREFUL when looking for SBO with ultrasound.
  • Let’s give a shout out to one of our medical students, Alexa Van Besien, who recently took some great images of a patient with a known SBO.

References

For more information on how to perform these exams and research data take a look at coreultrasound.com, thepocusatlas.com and ultrasoundgel.org.