A prune-induced small intestinal obstruction: sonographic appearance

Dried apricots: an unusual cause of bowel obstruction

We report an unusual cause of intestinal obstruction in a 16-month-old boy who presented with abdominal pain of 6 h duration. The patient was thought to have an intussusception, with plain radiographic evidence of a small-bowel obstruction (SBO). A subsequent US examination showed no evidence of intussusception but resulted in a diagnosis of SBO caused by the ingestion of whole dried apricots. The apricots had been eaten several hours earlier and had swelled in the intestinal lumen. The US imaging findings and experimental correlation are presented.

Plum stones: an unusual cause of ileostomy obstruction demonstrated by sonography

Bowel obstruction is a common cause of stomal complications of ileostomy. We report a case in which sonography revealed 2 well-defined, rounded, hyperechoic structures, measuring 1.7 cm in diameter and causing dense acoustic shadowing, in the lumen of the bowel of a 3-year-old boy with a permanent end ileostomy. Endoscopy showed the structures to be freely mobile plum stones in the fluid-filled terminal ileum. This case demonstrates the usefulness of sonography in the diagnostic workup of patients with ileostomy obstruction.