Abdominal palpation and percussion maneuvers do not affect bowel sounds.

Objectives: Medical textbooks suggest that the frequency of bowel sounds may be altered by performing auscultation after palpation or percussion. We hypothesize that the frequency of bowel sounds is not affected by the order of abdominal examination.

Material And Methods: Both healthy volunteers (n= 80) and patients (n= 100) were enrolled in this crossover randomized study.