Small bowel emergency surgery: Literature's review

Emergency surgery of the small bowel represents a challenge for the surgeon, in the third millennium as well. There is a wide number of pathologies which involve the small bowel. The present review, by analyzing the recent and past literature, resumes the more commons. The aim of the present review is to provide the main indications to face the principal pathologies an emergency surgeon has to face with during his daily activity. © 2011 Vallicelli et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.