MDCT of small bowel tumours

Primary benign and malignant neoplasm of the small bowel are rare. Malignant tumours often present late symptoms resulting in a poor prognosis. Early detection of small bowel neoplasms is desirable but challenging for both clinicians and radiologists. Conventional double contrast enteroclysis was the method of choice in small bowel imaging but is increasingly being replaced by cross-sectional imaging methods as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multidetector CT (MDCT) produces high-resolution cross-sectional imaging of the abdomen and the small bowel. It allows multiplanar visualisation of small bowel tumours, demonstrates signs of small bowel obstruction as well as the mural and extramural extent of small bowel malignancies. This aids planning for surgical resection. In addition, liver metastases or peritoneal seeding can be detected with CT. The best visualisation of small bowel neoplasms is achieved with CT enteroclysis or enterography and this review discusses these techniques and MDCT characteristics of small bowel tumours.