Small Bowel Series

What is the test used for?
A small bowel series is used to look at the small bowel, the part of the digestive tract between the stomach and the colon. A barium compound diluted with water fills the inside of the small bowel, and x-rays are taken. Barium looks white on x-ray, and outlines any irregularity of the bowel wall.

What is the preparation for the test?
 

The patient can have nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before the exam including water.

The patient may take a any prescribed medication with a small amount of water

Will I have to undress?
You will be asked to remove most of your upper clothes, but may keep wearing your underpants. Buttons, clips etc on clothes show up too well on x-ray and can be confusing to interpret or hide abnormalities. You will be asked to change into a cotton gown, opened at the back.

Where will I be for the test?
You will be asked to lie on a fluoroscopy table. This is an unfortunately hard table which can move in many directions as well as tilt.

How is the test done?
Barium liquid is swallowed, and passes from the stomach into the small bowel. The object of the test is to fill the length of the small bowel with barium. This means that several cups of liquid may have to be swallowed. Don't worry - we want you to swallow as much as possible, and won't force you to drink it so fast that you feel sick. After the liquid is drunk, you will be asked to lie on your right side, so the liquid leaves the stomach and passes into the small bowel.

The normal "transit time" through the small bowel is very variable, and may be between 5 minutes and one hour. If you experience pain at any time, let us know. The pain may help to localize areas of disease, so don't hesitate in telling.

Several x-rays will be taken. The doctor may ask you to roll around on the x-ray table to view all the loops of the bowel. The x-rays are then processed and checked by the doctor, who may need to take some more.

Once the barium is through the small bowel and the pictures are taken, your test will be completed.

How long will it all take?
The test takes anything from 30 minutes to many hours depending on how fast your intestine can move the liquid through the many feet of small bowel. If the progress is slow, we may ask you to leave the fluoroscopy room and wait for 20 or 30 minutes before checking progress.

And after the test?
The barium looks like cement, but fortunately does not set like cement! Drink plenty of clear fluids over the next day.