Chapter 2155: Chapter 2155: Quiet Auscultation
Only Nie Jiamin has this privilege, with a special expert outpatient session seeing only five to six patients.
The doctors present from the same hospital understand that this pediatric specialist often falls victim to his own occupational habits, and do not take his warnings to heart.
In fact, no doctor dares to neglect little Xie Youtian, even someone like Tan Kelin, who seems cold towards children, is now taking extra care. He wears a stethoscope with earpieces on, warms the cold chest piece before placing it close to the child’s belly to listen.
This is to listen to the bowel sounds inside the child’s belly.
Bowel sounds, sometimes the doctor doesn’t need a stethoscope to hear them, even regular folks can hear them. For example, when people are hungry, they usually say their stomachs growl, which can be a sign of increased bowel sounds.
How is this sound produced? We know the human stomach and intestines are part of the digestive system, consuming solid food and liquid beverages, and even without food, there’s digestive fluid inside. At the same time, gas exists within the stomach and intestines.
When the stomach and intestines move, the gas mixing with the digestive liquids results in a physical phenomenon, akin to the sound of gas passing through water, more vividly, bubbles rising to the surface and producing a gurgling sound.
Normally, the movement of the stomach and intestines indicates a healthy state, with bubbles in liquid producing relatively mild sounds, like boiling water gently, subdued and steady. It manifests as normal bowel sounds, with fewer than four or five gurgles per minute, concealed beneath the belly, unnoticed unless one pays special attention.
When unhealthy, abnormal movements occur in the stomach and intestines, bowel sounds follow suit. This abnormality can manifest as increased bowel sounds, with intensified gurgling; or as weakened or absent bowel sounds, with diminished gurgles or none at all.
Based on these principles, doctors can deduce whether the patient has gastrointestinal motility issues by listening to bowel sounds, further inferring potential problems within the gastrointestinal tract.
Listening through auscultation requires significant concentration. A doctor wearing a stethoscope is like a musician, discerning the nature of sounds to keenly detect unusual signals within the body, going beyond simply counting frequencies.
Under Tan Kelin’s long bangs, his single-lidded eyes seem fixed on one point, unmoving, focusing solely on his listening and nothing else.
The child’s bowel sounds—how many times per minute, what is the quality of the sound, is the pitch high? Is it metallic? Or is it relatively normal bubble sounds?
Standing around him, no one dares speak. Qiu Ruiyun and Sun Yubo, who were arguing, decisively close their mouths. If anyone dares to make noise, they’ll be yelled at and thrown out by the boss.
When a doctor is auscultating, what is needed is silence, preferably absolute silence around.
Other experienced doctors, while Tan Kelin listens, don’t waste time but raise their ears as if transforming into stethoscopes themselves. When bowel sounds are strong, a stethoscope isn’t needed; simply listening can deduce quite a bit.
Listening now, inside this child’s small belly: growl, gurgle, gurgle... it’s getting somewhat loud.
This sound definitely exceeds six times a minute, indicating active increased bowel sounds. This increase likely isn’t because the child is hungry. The child’s past history shows eating a lot. Increased bowel sounds due to hunger are a result of tense intestinal contractions. Additionally, conditions like acute gastroenteritis or some mechanical obstructions in the intestine can stimulate increased bowel motility, reflecting as heightened bowel sounds.
