Dr. Elizabeth Squirell · Gastroenterologist · Kingston Health Sciences Centre
Intestinal ultrasound
A painless scan of your bowel, often done right in the IBD clinic. You can eat as usual, there are no needles and no radiation, and you can talk about the results the same day.
Key points
- Intestinal ultrasound is a painless scan of your bowel through the skin of your belly. It uses sound waves, not radiation.
- You can eat and drink as you usually would. Sometimes your team may ask you to take one dose of a laxative drink (RestoraLAX) before the scan.
- The doctor checks how thick your bowel wall is. In most of the bowel, 3 mm or less is normal.
- The doctor also looks for extra blood flow, swollen fat around the bowel, and whether the wall layers look normal.
- A thick wall alone does not mean you have a stricture (a narrow spot). That needs other signs too.
- Ultrasound can be repeated often and is safe in pregnancy, so it is good for checking if a treatment is working.
- It does not replace colonoscopy. You still need a colonoscopy for cancer checks and biopsies.
Go to emergency or call 911 if you have
- Heavy bleeding from your bottom, or you feel faint
- Severe belly pain that does not settle
- A fever with belly pain
- Vomiting, and you cannot keep fluids down