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Featured Case — Diagnosis
Radiographic Diagnosis:
1. Linear foreign body (LFB) mechanical obstruction.
Next Step:
Patient is a surgical candidate. A linear foreign body obstruction is a surgical emergency.
Abdominal ultrasound or upper GI contrast examinations are often performed in patients with suspected linear foreign bodies.
General Information:
This is a fairly "classic" presentation of a LFB — the intestinal loops are not grossly dilated. There is plication of the small intestinal loops, and there are bizarre gas patterns (not linear, tubular or circumscribed/round).
Some linear foreign body materials include string, fishing line, stockings, tinsel, thread, fabric and plastic wrap. LFBs are sometimes "anchored" along the GI tract, under the tongue in cats and in the stomach in dogs. A cat can have a LFB and nothing is found under the tongue. It is important to identify and correct a LFB quickly, because a common complication is laceration of the GI tract by the LFB and subsequent peritonitis.
Burke RL. Ackerman N. The Abdomen. In Burke RL. Ackerman N. Small Animal Radiology and Ultrasonography. 2nd Ed. Philadelphia, Saunders Co. 1996.
Riedesel EA. The Small Bowel. In Thrall, DE. ed Textbook of Veterinary Diagnostic Radiology. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Saunders Co. 2002.
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