How to diagnose periumbilical paroxysmal colic?

  The acute onset of severe abdominal pain persists unabated or changes from paroxysmal colic to persistent abdominal pain with a more fixed location of pain, if the abdominal pain involves the back suggesting that the mesentery is stretched, more suggestive of strangulated intestinal obstruction.  First of all, the history should be analyzed from the presence of mechanical obstruction factors, dynamic intestinal obstruction including common paralytic and rare spastic intestinal obstruction; mechanical intestinal obstruction is characterized by paroxysmal intestinal colic hyperacusis and asymmetric abdominal distension; while paralytic intestinal obstruction is characterized by the absence of colic intestinal sounds and uniform distension of the whole abdomen; spastic intestinal obstruction can have a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain and disappearance of intermittent irregular bowel sounds weakened and X-ray abdominal plain films can help to distinguish them: in mechanical obstruction, intestinal distention is limited to the intestinal segment above the obstruction site; in paralytic obstruction, all the stomach, small intestine and colon are distended to approximately the same extent; in spastic obstruction, the intestine is not obviously distended and dilated, and frontal and lateral abdominal plain films taken every minute to observe the movement of the small intestine can often distinguish mechanical from paralytic intestinal obstruction. X-ray abdominal fluoroscopy or radiography is helpful to confirm the clinical diagnosis and determine the site of intestinal obstruction. In normal people, only a small amount of gas can be seen in the stomach and colon on abdominal radiographs, and the presence of gas and fluid planes in the small intestine indicates the obstruction of the passage of intestinal contents and suggests the presence of intestinal obstruction. Acute small bowel obstruction usually takes hours for sufficient fluid and gas to accumulate in the intestine. The degree of intestinal dilatation after hours of significant fluid plane formation certainly reaches a diagnostic level, and colonic obstruction progresses to the point where radiographic signs appear much longer Inflated small bowel, especially jejunum, can be identified by the circumferential folds across the intestinal canal and can be distinguished from a colon with colonic pouching. In addition, the typical small intestine bowel pattern is mostly in the central part of the abdomen, while the colon shadow is in the peri-abdomen or in the pelvis. Depending on the patient’s physical condition, radiographs can be taken from the frontal or lateral position in the standing or horizontal position, and series of radiographs can be performed if necessary.