| Abstract: | Patients receiving anticoagulant therapy may present with the clinical features of small-bowel obstruction due to intramural hæmorrhage of the bowel. Four patients with this syndrome are described, and the clinical problems in diagnosis and management are discussed. Awareness of this complication is necessary so that the diagnosis can be confirmed by barium studies of the small bowel, particularly in patients in whom other anticoagulant complications such as hæmaturia, bruising and increased prothrombin time are absent. Once the diagnosis is established, treatment is by conservative rather than operative methods. |
