The importance of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To present, in a systematized and simplified way, the importance of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was chosen the bibliographical research, developed through consultations to references available in books, journals and scientific articles indexed in electronic databases Medline, SciELO, Lilacs and PubMed. RESULT: Conventional radiology was and still is widely used in the gastrointestinal diagnostic approach. However, advances in ultrasound, including the availability of high-frequency transducers, have allowed its increasing use in the study of pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. This technique presents several advantages in terms of safety, availability, low cost, easy repetition in the same patient, real time data supply and functional and structural information acquisition of the area investigated. Increasingly, they have assumed a fundamental role, associated with clinical data, in the rapid and non-invasive diagnosis, besides having the advantage of not possessing ionizing radiation and being a dynamic, low cost and easy mobilization method. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonography appears as one of the main noninvasive tests recommended for the diagnosis and location of intestinal obstruction.