6. What type of pain is felt by a patient with a paralytic ileus?
Correct answer: No pain. There is no colicky pain because there is absence of intestinal movements.
3. Why is it bad practice to say that a patient has an ‘ileus’ if you mean a ‘paralytic ileus’?
Correct answer: An ‘ileus’ comes from the Greek verb ‘to roll’ and refers to the pain of mechanical obstruction.
2. What are the two major subdivisions of obstructions?
Correct answer: Mechanical and paralytic.
13. How should the cause of mechanical intestinal obstruction be classified?
Correct answer: (1) Causes in the lumen. (2) Causes in the wall. (3) Causes outside the wall.
12. What will happen to a strangulated piece of bowel?
Correct answer: It will become gangrenous.
11. What is a strangulated obstruction?
Correct answer: This is when the blood supply of the involved segment of intestine is cut off (as may occur, for example, in strangulated hernia, volvulus, intussusception or when a loop of intestine is occluded by a band). Gangrene of…
10. What is a simple obstruction?
Correct answer: This occurs when the bowel is occluded without damage to its blood supply.
9. What are the different types of mechanical intestinal obstruction?
Both types of obstruction can lead to serious complications and require immediate medical attention. Symptoms of mechanical intestinal obstruction include abdominal pain, bloating, vomiting, and constipation. Treatment may involve surgery to remove the obstruction and repair any damage to the…
8. How is the site of a mechanical intestinal obstruction classified?
Correct answer: The site of the obstruction is classified into high or low, which is roughly synonymous with small or large bowel obstruction.
7. What is the relevance of the speed of onset of a mechanical intestinal obstruction?
Correct answer: The speed of onset determines whether the obstruction is acute, chronic or acute on chronic. In acute obstruction the onset is rapid and the symptoms are severe. In chronic obstruction the symptoms are insidious and slowly progressive (as,…
