Intestinal obstruction is a blockage, partial or complete, of the intestinal lumen, which makes it difficult or impossible for the intestine to move its contents. As a result, the blood circulation of the intestines, the water and salt balance of the body are disturbed.
Obstruction occurs due to a mechanical obstruction or impaired intestinal motor function. Depending on what caused the blockage, mechanical and dynamic intestinal obstruction is distinguished.
Mechanical obstruction can occur due to inversion of the intestines or the formation of a node, as a result of adhesive disease, with a hernia. The intestine can also become clogged with food or feces, foreign bodies, a tumor, roundworms.
Mechanical bowel obstruction symptoms have the following: bloating, pain and abdominal cramps, which occur sharply, regardless of food intake, lack of stool. With obstruction of the small intestine, vomiting occurs (over time, it becomes a fecal odor). Bloody diarrhea may occur during intussusception.
Dynamic obstruction develops as a result of a variety of reflex effects on intestinal motility, with violations of acid-salt and water-electrolyte balances, as well as pathologies in the processes of the nervous system.
Dynamic intestinal obstruction symptoms are the same as mechanical, but peristalsis (intestinal contractions) is absent.
All of the above symptoms are basic. However, bowel obstruction also has specific symptoms: a relatively stable asymmetric bloating that does not move and is easy to identify by touch and sometimes by eye; balloon-like bloating of the rectum, a change in increased peristalsis to fading intestinal contractions; lack of bowel sounds; sharp pain when pressing on the area below the navel, etc.
During the disease, three periods are distinguished. In the early (up to 12 hours) period, the main symptom is pain. In the intermediate (from 12 hours to a day) period, bowel obstruction symptoms have the same typical clinical picture of acute intestinal obstruction. The patient is getting worse. In the third (1.5-2 days) period, bowel obstruction symptoms have the following: hypotension, tachycardia, fever, and internal organs insufficiency may develop.
As in most diseases, before prescribing treatment, you need to understand what is the causative agent, and in this case, the treatment of bowel obstruction itself will depend on the cause.
In the case when mechanical bowel obstruction is established or suspected, first of all, the patient should be immediately taken to the hospital surgical department. Mechanical intestinal obstruction treatment requires the following: first, examination (if the diagnosis needs to be confirmed) and conservative treatment, including siphon enemas, intravenous fluid administration, aspiration of the stomach contents (the effectiveness of conservative methods can be tracked by clinical data and X-ray images); if treatment with conservative methods fails, surgical intervention is necessary, the purpose of which is to eliminate the obstacle or create a detour for the intestinal contents.
For dynamic obstruction, only conservative treatment is indicated: hypertonic, siphon and cleansing enemas, stimulation of intestinal wall contractions, and the fight against dehydration and intoxication of the body.
In any case, no matter what the obstruction is, it is necessary to treat it immediately, and immediately, otherwise the disease can be a serious threat to human life.