Brief Answer: see below Detailed Answer: hi, i will try to assist. I see that your husband has been dealing with small bowel obstructions based on the provided information. i did not quite understand if he underwent surgery at any point since january 2014 for this. The specialists that usually deals with this problem are indeed a surgeon and a gastroenterologist. Risk factors for small bowel obstructions are actually a past history of any abdominal surgery, which can lead to scar tissue in the abdomen and later on in life bowel obstructions. If this is not the case, then other causes should be sought. One commonly missed problem is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's disease), which can affect the small bowel, and cause obstructions. This can be diagnosed by imaging studies, blood tests and ultimately with endoscopy / colonoscopy with biopsies (once the obstruction is cleared). Surgeons are usually not eager to do surgery for small bowel obstructions unless the patient does not get better, or the obstruction is "complete", meaning that gas doesn't go down the rectum, and vomiting does not stop despite placing an "NG tube" (nasogastric tube). Doing surgery may lead to further scarring and repeat bowel obstructions in the future. Your husband should also be off any pain medication such as ibuprofen, naprosyn, aspirin, etc which can cause ulcerations in the bowels and lead to bowel obstructions. Other considerations to keep in mind as the cause of the problem include: infections, cancers in the abdomen (however usually there is something on the CT scan or imaging studies to suggest this). Let me know if this answers your questions, otherwise write me back thank you

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