The small bowel to be resected is mobilized, and the mesentery is carefully studied for vascular arcades. A point of transection is selected sufficiently distant from the diseased portion and in the immediate vicinity of a healthy vascular arcade. The bowel should be suspended between Babcock clamps or warm moist saline gauze held between the thumb and first finger. The peritoneum of the mesentery is opened with a scalpel, using a delicate technique that does not transect the underlying blood vessels.