When they were trying to figure out where my blockage was, they did x rays and a CT scan with contrast. This showed where stuff was it the intestine vs areas that had nothing but air. This would indicate where everything was stopped, thus giving them an idea of other adhesions. But really, I don’t think they can exactly tell until they get in there. I know when they started laparoscopic last time, as soon as the camera was in, they saw how bad the adhesions were, and used the camera as a guide to see where to open me back up. My incision ended up being bigger, about 3 inches or so because they needed to start where there weren’t any adhesions. I hope this info helps