Abstract
Acute bowel ischemia is a condition with a high mortality rate. The most important factors for successful treatment are early diagnosis and evaluation of the extent of the affected part of the bowel.
Extensive (and not always unavoidable) resections can cause short bowel syndrome with alimentary impairment of the patients. On the other hand; the unrecognized ischemia of the bowel often results in the death of the patients.
Fluorescein and ultra-violet light is a simple and technically feasible method for peroperative assessment of intestine viability. This method is especially useful in cases when visual assessment of the intestinal viability is not sufficient, e.g. early stages of intestinal sichemia or incomplete occlusion of the blood supply (volvulus, strangulation).
This method gives the surgeon great independence when assessing bowel viablity and the extent of the ischemic part.