Point of Care Ultrasound for Suspected Small Bowel Obstruction in the Emergency Department

Study Summary

The primary purpose of this study is to determine the accuracy of ultrasound in diagnosing small bowel obstruction in emergency department patients, as compared to the criterion standards of computed tomography, operative reports, or discharge diagnosis. The secondary purposes of the study include evaluation of the effect of ultrasound for small bowel obstruction on the patient length of stay in the emergency department and the diagnostic utility of specific ultrasound findings in the diagnosis of small bowel obstruction. The study will also examine the inter-rater agreement between point-of-care sonographers' interpretation and blinded reviewers' interpretation of the ultrasound images.

Primary Outcome

The performance of point-of-care ultrasound for small bowel obstruction will be evaluated by comparing each ultrasound to the criterion standard of computed tomography (CT) for each enrolled patient. If a CT is not obtained, then operative report/findings or discharge diagnosis will be used as the criterion standard to which the ultrasound will be compared. Using the criterion standard as the definitive diagnosis for each patient (i.e. presence or absence of small bowel obstruction), each ultra

Interventions

• DEVICE Ultrasound for Small Bowel Obstruction