SBO | Douglas-Jarrett Turno PA-C | Boston, MA

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An elderly F with a history of prior abdominal surgeries many years ago presented with several bouts of nausea and emesis starting the night prior to presentation. She’d been on antibiotics for 3 days for pneumonia. Her vital signs were normal, and her abdomen was mildly distended, but non-tender and certainly non-peritoneal.

POCUS Abdominal showed a dilated loop of bowel (with a diameter >2.5 cm using the cm hash marks on the right of the screen) with back and forth peristalsis of stool suggestive of SBO distal to this point.

Sono Pearl There is free fluid deep to the dilated loop of bowel, the ‘tanga sign’ named after a type of bikini with a triangular shape (learned recently from J. Avila | 5 Min Sono).