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College of Medicine: Department of Radiology

An Overview of Gastrointestinal Pathology

Last modified: October 13, 2022
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In the world of pediatric radiology, gastrointestinal anomalies are perhaps the most common, yet clinically confusing group of pathologies, which is why they are aptly suited to imaging for establishing the correct diagnosis (2). Although the differentials are aplenty, we will attempt to address some of the common and more important pediatric GI pathologies which the radiology resident on call may expect to encounter and what to do about them. The clinical entities covered in this part of the review focused on the GI tract will be (in order of incidence) appendicitis, intussusception, gastrointestinal tract obstruction including malrotation, and midgut volvulus; pyloric stenosis; lower gastrointestinal obstructive syndromes including Hirschsprung’s disease, and foreign body ingestion. We will not go over malpositioned feeding tubes (gastrostomy/gastrojejunostomy/Nasogastric/Nasojejunal tubes) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) but these are additional things to consider when you’re reading abdominal radiographs of infants admitted in the ICU.

References

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