Introduction

• Small bowel follow-through (SBFT) examination may be performed as a continuation of an upper gastrointestinal (UGI) series or as a separate, dedicated study of the small bowel. It can actually permit better evaluation of small bowel fold patterns, caliber, and motility than does enteroclysis (small bowel enema).
  
  
• However, to be a consistently effective diagnostic technique, the SBFT must be meticulously conducted and interpreted. Virtually all errors have been attributed to one of two causes: 1) technical inadequacies or 2) placing too much reliance on the overhead radiographs and obtaining fluoroscopy and spot films only of the terminal ileum or when an abnormality is suspected on an overhead film.