Use your patient’s belly button as the center and divide your listening around the belly button into four sections. Listen to the upper left, upper right, lower left and right. Normal bowel sounds sound like when your stomach growls or grumbles. Anything else may suggest that something is wrong and that the patient requires further evaluation. You should hear “growling” in all four sections. Sometimes after surgery, bowel sounds will take a while to return. Most of the sounds that you hear when listening to your patient’s bowels are just the sounds of digestion. Although most bowel sounds are normal, there are some abnormalities that could point to a problem. If you are unsure if the bowel sounds you hear are normal and/or the patient has other symptoms, then the patient should see a doctor for further evaluation.  If you do not hear any bowel sounds, that may mean that something is blocked in the patient’s stomach. It can also indicate constipation and bowel sounds may return on their own. But if they do not return, then there may be a blockage. In this case, the patient would need further evaluation by a doctor.   If the patient has hyperactive bowel sounds followed by a lack of bowel sounds, that could indicate that there has been a rupture or necrosis of the bowel tissue.  If the patient has very high-pitched bowel sounds, this may indicate that there is an obstruction in the patient’s bowels.  Slow bowel sounds may be caused by prescription drugs, spinal anesthesia, infection, trauma, abdominal surgery, or overexpansion of the bowel.  Fast, or hyperactive bowel sounds can be caused by Crohn’s disease, a gastrointestinal bleed, food allergies, diarrhea, infection, and ulcerative colitis.
Place the diaphragm on your patient’s bare stomach. Listen for normal bowel sounds. Listen for abnormal bowel sounds.
Place the diaphragm on your patient’s bare stomach. Listen for normal bowel sounds. Listen for abnormal bowel sounds.