Large Bowel Obstruction

Excerpt

Large bowel obstruction usually presents as an emergency. Depending on the etiology, the patient may have had various symptoms before the acute presentation. Patients can potentially be very ill, septic, dehydrated, and hemodynamically and cardiovascularly compromised, especially if they have a competent ileocecal valve, which prevents decompression of the large bowel into the small bowel and leads to a closed-loop obstruction.