Intraoperative assessment of bowel viability using conventional clinical criteria is known to be rather unreliable. Uses of Sodium Fluorescein has been proved to be a more reliable and practical way to predict viability of the bowel. In this study Sodium fluorescein was used ot determine the status of microcirculation and use it to predict the short term (20 hours) future outcome of the ischemic bowel segments which were constructed to be nourished only by transmural circulation from adjacent normal bowel segments. Prediction of the outcome 24 hours after ischemic insult based on determination did 4 houre after ischemia, using conventional clinical criteria, fluorescein fluorescence patterns and combination of the two methods was done in 32 segments of bowel in 8 rabbits. Pathological examination was used as the endpoint to definitely determine viability. Conventional clinical criteria, fluorescein fluorescence and combination of the two methods correctly predicted the outcome of ischemic segments in 72.2%, 86.0% and 91.6% respectively. Fluorescein fluorescence patten determination were superior to conventional clinical criteria at statistically significant level.