Result of circumscribed peritonitis. Extends from one part of
abdominal wall to another, around or between intestines, on omentum,
or adhesion of omentum to inguinal ring. In cattle tubercular products
strangulate bowels. Symptoms: the colic of obstruction, rectal
exploration. Treatment: laparotomy, removal of constricting band.
Adventitious fibrous bands in the abdomen are the result of a
pre-existing peritonitis of a circumscribed area. The fibrinous exudate
thrown out on the parietal peritoneum is detached in its median part but
remains adherent at the ends, and when organized into tense resistant
white fibrous tissue remains as a trap to entangle and strangulate the
intestinal folds. In other cases they form on or between intestines or
other viscera which are for the moment torpid and inactive, and
contracting as they become organized, they bind these together and
hamper their movements, and endanger the integrity of all movable
viscera in the vicinity. Again they form on the omentum and threaten the
integrity of the bowels by strangulation. The omentum protruding at
castration becomes adherent to the inguinal ring and forms a dangerous
band.
In _cattle_ the growth of peritoneal tubercle often binds the small
intestines together in an inextricable tangle leading to considerable
compression, and obstruction without a complete stenosis.
_Symptoms._ These vary with the organ constricted, but they are usually
those of a more or less perfect obstruction of some portion of the
intestine small or large, which has passed over or under the
constricting band and fails to return, often undergoing a torsion which
renders its imprisonment still more secure. The author has found the
double colon fatally constricted in this way, and Leblanc furnishes a
similar case. Cases are on record of the binding of the duodenum to the
right lobe of the liver by a strong fibrous band, of the binding of the
double colon to the right flank and in another case to the floor of the
abdomen, and of the ileum to the meso-rectum and in another case to the
left flank. These give rise sooner or later to obstruction of these
viscera or, to incarceration of adjacent ones so that the animal dies of
intestinal obstruction with its attendant symptoms.
_Treatment._ If the true nature of the case can be made out by rectal
exploration the appropriate treatment is by laparotomy and the removal
of the constricting band.