Question

A 24-year-old man comes to the emergency department because of a 3-day history of increasingly severe abdominal pain and vomiting. He has no history of major medical illnesses, hospital admissions, or operations. The patient is in obvious distress. His pulse is 110 min. On examination, his abdomen is sightly tympanitic with high pitched bowel sound. There is involuntary guarding on palpation. A CT scan of the abdomen shows congenital nonrotation of the bowel.

Which of the following structures would have been there as if this patient's bowel had rotated normally?
A) Celiac artery
B) Inferior mesenteric artery
C) Median umbilical ligament
D) Superior mesenterio artery
E) Umbilical vein F) Urachus

Answer 1

The answer to the question is the Superior mesenteric artery; it supplies blood to intestinal segments that would be affected by the normal rotation of the bowel.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asked is related to the consequence of the congenital nonrotation of the bowel and which structure would have been where it should be if the patient's bowel had rotated normally. The correct answer is D) Superior mesenteric artery. Normal rotation of the intestine during fetal development positions the superior mesenteric artery to supply the small intestine, cecum, ascending colon, and most of the transverse colon, with branches such as the intestinal, ileocolic, right colic, and middle colic branches. In cases of congenital nonrotation, the positioning of these vessels and hence the blood supply to the aforementioned intestinal segments can be altered, potentially contributing to abdominal pain and vomiting as seen in the patient. The other listed structures are either unrelated to bowel rotation or not affected by it.