Diseases of the intestinal loops
Pain in the area of the intestinal loops can have various causes. One speaks of intestinal pain or visceral pain if the pain originates from organs of the gastrointestinal tract. Possible causes are an irritable bowel, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and tumours of the gastrointestinal tract.
In the case of an irritable bowel, in addition to the visceral pain, the patients suffer from a feeling of fullness, flatulence, rumbling and an alternation between diarrhoea and constipation. Crohn’s disease is typically accompanied by recurrent episodes of diarrhoea, which occur with fever and severe pain. In the long term, those affected suffer from weight loss.
Ulcerative colitis typically causes abdominal and intestinal pain, diarrhoea and bleeding from the rectum. Pain in the abdominal cavity cannot always be localised and described well. Intestinal obstruction can also cause severe abdominal pain, which is colicky if mechanically closed.
Other symptoms are acute stool retention, nausea, vomiting, a bloated abdomen, fever and accelerated heartbeat. An intestinal obstruction can also be of the paralytic type. In this case, the intestine is paralyzed so that no intestinal sounds can be heard and the pain remains diffuse.
In addition, other organs in the abdominal cavity can also cause pain, which is indistinguishable from pain in the intestinal loops. The gallbladder, pancreas, spleen and even the woman’s fallopian tubes are possible causes of unbearable abdominal pain. Severe abdominal pain can therefore have various causes and requires clarification and should be presented to a doctor.
Inflammations can develop in the area of the entire intestinal tract. Acute inflammations, for example due to food poisoning, often affect the stomach and small intestine. Depending on the spread of the inflammation, numerous intestinal loops may be inflamed.
In addition, there are chronic inflammations of the intestines that cause recurrent symptoms in the area of the intestinal loops. Important diseases are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Ulcerative colitis typically affects the large intestine, but small intestinal loops can also be inflamed, while Crohn’s disease mainly leads to inflammation of the small intestinal loops.
Symptoms of intestinal inflammation, depending on the cause, are digestive disorders such as diarrhoea, severe abdominal pain and cramps, nausea and vomiting. Intestinal engorgement typically does not occur in the area of the physiological intestinal loops of the small intestine, but in the last part of the large intestine. However, it can also occur in the small intestine.
In this case, part of the intestinal tube can twist around its own axis and cause intestinal trapping. You can imagine the intestinal tube similar to a garden hose that you twist around itself. If a twisted loop of intestine is formed, the food cannot pass further.
This can cause severe pain. At the same time, it is possible that blood vessels in the twisted intestinal loop are pinched off and affected intestinal sections are insufficiently supplied with blood and may even die. A further complication could be serious inflammation of the peritoneum.
This means that a twisted intestinal loop can become life-threatening. The cause of the development of an intestinal loop twist is not known for sure. However, it often occurs in older people and especially in people with a long colon.
The clinical picture usually requires surgical treatment. Whether an intestinal loop is dilated can be determined with imaging examinations, for example with X-rays or computer tomography (CT). One speaks of a dilated intestinal loop if the tortuous parts of the intestine are wider than normal.
X-ray or CT images show a clear difference compared to non-expanded intestinal parts. Other signs, such as a fluid level and excessive bloating, provide clues to the diagnosis, for example intestinal obstruction. Dilated intestinal loops occur as a result of a narrowing of intestinal tissue.
This means that the intestine is locally dilated before the narrowing of the intestinal tube, as the intestinal contents accumulate here. The entrapment of an intestinal loop is called incarceration. There are various possibilities of intestinal loops becoming trapped.
Intestinal loops can become trapped when a hernia develops. A hernia is a hernia. A common type of hernia is a gap in the abdominal wall through which intestinal loops and peritoneum appear to be bulging outwards.
The incarcerations can be firm or movable so that the intestine can be pushed back. Depending on the location, the trapped intestinal part and affected vessels, an incarceration of intestinal loops can be dangerous and lead to ischemia. This means that a reduced blood supply to intestinal tissue can occur, which can even cause the intestine to die.
Ischemia due to incarceration is a life-threatening clinical picture and requires immediate surgical treatment. In addition, intestinal loops can also become trapped inside the abdominal cavity, for example by a tumour that requires space. In medicine, the word “sticking” describes adhesions at anatomical sites that are not normally connected in this way.
These adhesions are also called adhesions. Adhesions can have various causes. They can occur after operations in the affected tissue or as a result of chronic inflammation.
A common cause of adhesions in intestinal loops is chronic inflammation of the intestines, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. The adhesions of the intestinal loops can have a negative effect on the function of the intestine. They can disrupt intestinal movements and slow down the transport of food through the intestine. An intestinal obstruction can be a dangerous complication.
