• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.233-240
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• 2020

Objectives: This report presents a case using acupuncture and moxibustion to treat postoperative adhesive small bowel obstruction. Case Presentation: A 62-year-old male with two previous intra-abdominal surgeries, complaining of abdominal pain, abdominal distention, and general weakness, visited Korean medicine hospital. He was suffering from small bowel obstruction that had not improve for three weeks. Methods: The patient was diagnosed with postoperative adhesive small bowel obstruction. The patient received acupuncture and moxibustion in addition to intravenous fluid treatment. The patient underwent radiologic testing on a daily basis. Results: The symptoms improved quickly with the treatment, including acupuncture and moxibustion. He was able to start eating three days after he started receiving treatment. The abdomen X-ray also showed rapid improvement. No adverse effect was observed during the nine days of hospitalization. Conclusions: This report demonstrates that acupuncture and moxibustion may be effective in treating adhesive small bowel obstruction. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.219-221
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• 2008

Intestinal obstruction is not uncommon in infants. The common causes of intestinal obstruction in the neonatal period are Hirschsprung disease, intestinal atresia, meconium ileus, and intussusception. However, small bowel obstruction caused by a congenital band is very rare. We report a 27-day-old baby who was admitted with abdominal distension and fever. The abdominal X-ray revealed massive bowel dilatation and the contrast gastrografin enema suggested a distal small bowel obstruction. The explolaparotomy showed small bowel entrapment due to an unusual anomalous congenital band.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2022

Plain radiographic analysis is the initial imaging modality for suspected small bowel obstruction. Among the many features that affect the diagnosis of small bowel obstruction (SBO), the presence of gas-filled or fluid-filled small bowel loops is the most salient feature that can be automatized by computer vision algorithms. In this study, we compare three frequently applied pixel-clustering algorithms for extracting gas-filled areas without human intervention. In a comparison involving 40 suspected SBO cases, the Possibilistic C-Means and Fuzzy C-Means algorithms exhibited initialization-sensitivity problems and difficulties coping with low intensity contrast, achieving low 72.5% and 85% success rates in extraction. The Adaptive Resonance Theory 2 algorithm is the most suitable algorithm for gas-filled region detection, achieving a 100% success rate on 40 tested images, largely owing to its dynamic control of the number of clusters.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.230-234
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• 2009

Trichobezoars are commonly found within the stomach, but rarely induce small bowel obstruction. We report an 8-year-old girl who presented with bilious vomiting and colicky abdominal pain. She had a history of depression and trichophagia. A diagnosis of small bowel obstruction was made on computed tomography and a trichobezoar in the ileum was evacuated by exploratory laparatomy.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.291-297
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• 2019

Bowel ischemia is a life-threatening surgical emergency. We report a case of rapidly progressive bowel necrosis in a previously healthy child without proven mechanical small bowel obstruction. The definite diagnosis was established at the time of an exploratory operation. Of note, imaging studies and even a laparotomy did not reveal any evidence of acute appendicitis or mechanical obstruction such as intussusception or Meckel's diverticulum. During hospitalization, since we could not rule out surgical abdomen after inconclusive image findings, we closely followed the patient and repeated physical examinations carefully. Eventually surgical exploration was performed based on changes in clinical condition, which proved to be the right decision for the patient. We propose that in children with suspected strangulation of small bowel obstruction, especially when imaging findings do not provide a conclusive diagnosis, the timely exploratory surgical approach ought to be chosen based on carefully observed clinical findings and other evaluations.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2023

Postoperative adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) is an intractable disorder which sometimes leads to adhesiolysis or small bowel resection. These therapeutic reoperations, however, also have many limitations including complications. An 80-year-old female, who had undergone 4-abdominal surgeries, visited the hospital with continuous vomiting. Based on her clinical symptoms and history, multiple air-fluid levels and distention of the small bowel in an abdominal X-ray, we diagnosed her with postoperative incomplete ASBO. We conducted acupuncture and an herbal medicine enema to stimulate bowel movement and relieve pain. The patient came in complaining of abdominal pain and vomited more than 10 times on hospital day 0 stopping on hospital day 4. Comparing hospital day 0 with hospital day 4, the abdominal pain decreased from a numerical rating scale (NRS) 10 to 4. There were no side effects such as redness or burns during the treatment process. This study presented an acupuncture-based treatment will be helpful for clinicians managing cases of ASBO with poor performance in elderly individuals.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-27
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• 2014

Patients treated with peritoneal dialysis have increased intra-abdominal pressure and a high prevalence of abdominal wall complications. Hernias can lead to significant morbidity in patients on peritoneal dialysis. Hernias are clinically important because of the risk of incarceration, strangulation and subsequent bowel obstruction, rupture, and peritonitis. In this paper, a case of incarcerated umbilical hernia with small bowel obstruction in a continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patient is reported. The small bowel obstruction improved after herniorrhaphy, and the peritoneal dialysis was resumed 2 weeks after the herniorrhaphy. The patient had been undergoing CAPD without technical failure until the 2 months follow-up after the herniorrhaphy. This case shows that early detection of incarcerated umbilical hernia and herniorrhaphy can prevent resection of a strangulated small bowel so that it can remain on CAPD without post-operative technical failure. Umbilical hernias should be carefully observed and intestinal obstruction should be considered when a CAPD patient with an umbilical hernia has abdominal pain.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.193-196
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• 2015

A fecaloma refers to a mass of accumulated feces that is much harder than a mass associated with fecal impaction. Fecalomas are usually found in the rectosigmoid area. A 10-year-old male with chronic constipation was admitted because of increasing abdominal pain. An abdominal computed tomography scan and a simple abdominal x-ray revealed rapidly evolving mechanical obstruction in the small intestine. Most of the fecalomas are successfully treated by conservative methods such as laxatives, enemas and rectal evacuation. When conservative treatments have failed, surgical intervention may be needed. In this case, an emergency operation was performed and a $4{\times}3{\times}2.5cm$ fecaloma was found in the distal ileum. We thus report a case of ileal fecaloma inducing small bowel obstruction in a patient with chronic constipation, who required surgical intervention. When symptoms of acute small intestinal obstruction develop in a patient with chronic constipation, a fecaloma should be considered in differential diagnosis.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.190-194
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• 2013

Internal hernia (IH) is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction occurs when there is protrusion of an internal organ into a retroperitoneal fossa or a foramen in the abdominal cavity. IH can be presented with acute or chronic abdominal symptom and discovered by accident in operation field. However, various kinds of imaging modalities often do not provide the assistance to diagnose IH preoperatively, but computed tomography (CT) scan has a high diagnostic accuracy. We report a case of congenital IH in a 6-year-old boy who experienced life threatening shock. CT scan showed large amount of ascites, bowel wall thickening with poor or absent enhancement of the strangulated bowel segment. Surgical exploration was performed immediately and had to undergo over two meters excision of strangulated small bowel. To prevent the delay in the diagnosis of IH, we should early use of the CT scan and take urgent operation.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to analyze the early experience of the laparoscopic adhesiolysis for the intestinal obstruction due to postoperative adhesion. Seven patients were included in this study. The median age of those patients was 13, and there were 3 males and 4 females. Previous diagnosis and surgical procedure were various in seven cases, including small bowel resection with tapering enteroplasty, Boix-Ochoa fundoplication, Ladd's procedure with appendectomy, mesenteric tumor resection with small bowel anastomosis, ileocecal resection and anastomosis, primary gastric repair, and both high ligation. A successful laparoscopic adhesiolysis was performed in one who had high ligation for inguinal hernia and had a single band adhesion. Six out of 7 (86%) cases needed to convert open surgery due to multiple and dense type of adhesion. In conclusion, laparoscopic approach with postoperative small bowel adhesion seems safe. However, it might be prudently considered because of high rates of conversion in children.