ABSTRACT
Computed tomography (CT) is used in the abdomen for a wide range of indications from nonspeci¢c abdominal pain to surgical planning or guidance for interventional procedures. Similarly, CT is used extensively in the gastrointestinal tract for a variety of indications including bowel obstruction, perforation, or ischemia, Crohn’s disease, appendicitis, diverticulitis, and other in£ammatory diseases, bowel tumors, and masses or £uid collections in the mesentery. Recently, speed and high resolution achieved with spiral and multislice scanning has expanded the uses of CT. The gastrointestinal tract is always imaged at abdominal CT scanning, and valuable bowel information is obtained from routine abdominal surveys. However, imaging of the bowel is challenging because of its length and orientation, the di⁄culty in sustaining distension and homogeneity of the oral contrast column, and variability in IV contrast enhancement. Tailoring the examination to optimize bowel detail can be done with multiplanar CT enterography. This is a minor variation on routine abdominal scanning geared towards more sustained bowel ¢lling with oral contrast material and utilization of both axial and coronal planes. Additional small-bowel detail can be obtained with CT enteroclysis. This technique
is more involved, requiring jejunal intubation and insertion of large amounts of contrast material with the use of a pump.
