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Dried apricots: an unusual cause of bowel obstruction.

Piotto L, Gent R

Department of Medical Imaging, Women's and Children's Hospital, 72 King William Road, North Adelaide, South Australia, 5006, Australia.

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.

Published 25 November 2005 in Pediatr Radiol, 35(12): 1224-6.
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