Digestive Surgery
Original Paper
How Useful Are Bowel Sounds in Assessing the Abdomen?Gu Y.a · Lim H.J.b · Moser M.A.J.caCollege of Medicine, bDepartment of Community Health and Epidemiology, and cDepartment of Surgery, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada
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Article / Publication Details
Received: February 10, 2010
Accepted: July 13, 2010
Published online: October 15, 2010
Issue release date: November 2010
Number of Print Pages: 5
Number of Figures: 3
Number of Tables: 2
ISSN: 0253-4886 (Print)
eISSN: 1421-9883 (Online)
For additional information: https://www.karger.com/DSU
Abstract
Background: The purpose of our study is to determine the accuracy of bowel sounds in the diagnosis of ileus and bowel obstruction. Methods: Healthy volunteers (n = 10) and patients with radiologically or laparotomy confirmed small bowel obstruction (n = 9) and ileus (n = 7) were enrolled. Two 30-second recordings from each subject were obtained using an electronic stethoscope. Study physicians (n = 20) were then presented with 43 recordings in blinded fashion and were asked whether each was from a normal subject or from a subject with bowel obstruction or ileus. Results: Physicians arrived at the correct diagnosis a median of 30 times out of 43 (69.8%). Intra-observer variation (ĸ = 0.72, agreement 81.3%) and intra-subject variation (ĸ = 0.63, agreement 78.7%) were very good. Bowel sounds from subjects with ileus and normal bowel sounds were correctly identified most of the time (84.5 and 78.1%, respectively). Bowel sounds from patients with obstruction were correctly identified only 42.1% of the time, but if a physician believed he or she was hearing a bowel obstruction, this had a strong positive predictive value (PPV, 72.7%). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the auscultation of bowel sounds is useful, especially in detecting ileus. The diagnosis of obstruction had a high PPV.
© 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel
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Article / Publication Details
Received: February 10, 2010
Accepted: July 13, 2010
Published online: October 15, 2010
Issue release date: November 2010
Number of Print Pages: 5
Number of Figures: 3
Number of Tables: 2
ISSN: 0253-4886 (Print)
eISSN: 1421-9883 (Online)
For additional information: https://www.karger.com/DSU
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