Diagnostic Capability of Capsule Endoscopy in Small Bowel Diseases

Capsule Endoscopy (CE) is a recently developed noninvasive technique for imaging of small bowel pathologies. It is a swallowable wireless mini-camera for getting images of the gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa. General indications of CE are obscure bleeding, iron deficiency anemia, Crohn disease, abdominal pain, polyposis coli, celiac disease and small bowel tumors. Obstruction must be excluded with small bowel radiography before using CE. Bowel preparation can be recommended for good visualization. The main indication is obscure GI bleeding. Even though useful for the other indications in selected cases, large polypoid lesions may be missed. Diagnostic capability of CE and double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) are similar and CE is a good complemantary method for DBE.