Large bowel obstruction due to an impacted barolith—a delayed complication of a barium study

Abstract

Complications of barium sulphate studies abound in the literature but there are very few recorded instances of large bowel obstruction due to inspissated barium and faeces forming a 'barolith'. A patient who suffered this complication is reported.

Iatrogenic constipation from barium blockade: A case report

“…Constipation is the most common symptom that patients present after a barium study. The interval between a barium study and symptomatic manifestation of barolith may range from 2 days to 2 years …”

Intestinal obstruction from inspissated barium (Barolith): a systematic review of all cases from 1950 to 2006

“…In this review 24 articles [7–30] describing 34 cases were initially identified. However two articles were excluded; one described two cases in which a barium examination had converted a partial obstruction to a complete obstruction and therefore did not represent barolith‐induced obstruction as such [10].…”

“…The size of the barolith was only reported in five cases and all of these were similar in size. The smallest reported barolith was 4 × 2 cm [18] and the largest was >6 cm [12].…”

“…The latter could not be included in this review because no specific details of the case were given. Details of the remaining 31 cases reported in 22 articles [7][8][9][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] are summarized in Appendix 1.…”

“…The mean age of the men in this review was quite young at 61 years. There was one man in his 50s [12], one man in his 30s [13] and one man of 25 [14]. Two of these patients had other chronic health problems such as Parkinson's disease [13] or ischaemic heart disease [12].…”