bowel sound

[FutureDocDO]

I was told by a doc during rotation today to look up the definition of hyperactive/hypoactive bowel sounds. I guess what he wants is a concrete (e.g., number of gurgle or whatever that constitute hyper/hypo) definition. This all stems my progress note I wrote this morning stating the patient has hyperactive bowel sound. It was constant gurgling for more than 15 seconds. He didn't accept that definition. Is there a website that define this? Thanks!

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[aggiesarah2007]

I was told by a doc during rotation today to look up the definition of hyperactive/hypoactive bowel sounds. I guess what he wants is a concrete (e.g., number of gurgle or whatever that constitute hyper/hypo) definition. This all stems my progress note I wrote this morning stating the patient has hyperactive bowel sound. It was constant gurgling for more than 15 seconds. He didn't accept that definition. Is there a website that define this? Thanks!

In class we were told that "normal" could be 5 to 34 a minute, and that pretty much they are either present or absent. I did a quick google and I only found that hyperactive could be bad in someone with GI complaints, but it never said what it was. Good Luck!

 

[cpants]

Characteristics of bowel sounds
The sounds of swallowed air and fluid moving through the GI tract are known as bowel sounds. These sounds usually occur every 5 to 15 seconds, but their frequency may be irregular. For example, bowel sounds are normally more active just before and after a meal. They may last less than 1 second or up to several seconds.
Normal bowel sounds can be characterized as murmuring, gurgling, or tinkling. Hyperactive bowel sounds can be characterized as loud, gurgling, splashing, and rushing; they're higher pitched and occur more frequently than normal sounds. Hypoactive bowel sounds are softer or lower in tone and occur less frequently than normal sounds.

Source: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Follin: .[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Professional Guide to Signs and Symptoms, 4th ed., 2004.