Intravenous Contrast Agent in Abdominal CT: Is It Really Needed to Identify the Cause of Bowel Obstruction? Proof of Concept

Figure 3

Axial CT scan of an 85-year-old female with abdominal pain. Unenhanced CT scan (a) shows an abdominal incisional hernia with protrusion of omental fat and a small bowel loop, the dilated afferent small bowel loop, and the collapsed efferent loop in the transition zone. Post contrast image in the portal venous phase (b) show normal enhancement of the small bowel loop within the hernia. However, the detection of the etiology of the bowel obstruction was already made on unenhanced CT.

(a)

(b)