CT Gastrointestinal Tract - Video Lesson

Hey everybody, welcome back. This lesson is about the gastrointestinal tract as seen in CT imaging. We'll start with a coronal view. This is a coronal reformation of the abdomen and pelvis. The patient has received intravenous contrast as well as oral contrast, which is extremely helpful in the visualization of the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract is the series of organs through which food travels in the process of digestion. It's also called the alimentary canal. Most of these organs are contained within the abdomen and pelvis. And CT imaging is very good at demonstrating these organs. We'll identify these organs in the order of digestion. We can see the stomach in the left upper quadrant. The stomach is a large saccular organ that receives the food bolus from the esophagus. It is very elastic in nature, meaning its size and shape can change considerably based on what the patient has consumed. In this patient, the stomach is large and distended with contrast media.