Feasibility of Upper Gastrointestinal Examination in Home Care Setting with a Magnetically Assisted Capsule Endoscopy System: A Retrospective Study

The magnetic assisted capsule endoscope (MACE) with a hand-held magnetic field navigator (MFN) for upper gastrointestinal examination achieved satisfactory results in a healthy volunteer study. We evaluated the feasibility of upper gastrointestinal examination in the home care setting with the MACE system. Home care patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms that received an MACE exam were enrolled in the study. MACE procedure time; completeness of observation of important anatomical landmarks; endoscopic diagnosis; patient tolerance during the procedure; and patient data, including age, sex, comorbidities, symptoms, body weight, and height, were retrieved from hospital information system for data analysis. A total of 16 participants were enrolled with a mean age 74.3 ± 15.4 years (47 to 99 years). One patient failed to swallow the capsule and was excluded. The average procedure time was 23.7 ± 10.0 min (14.1 to 42.5 min) to complete each endoscopic exam for the remaining 15 patients. The overall maneuverability in the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum was 93.75%, 87.5%, and 75%, respectively. Overall completeness in the aforementioned regions was 93.75%, 81.25%, and 75%, respectively. No severe adverse events were noted. The results clearly demonstrate the promise of using this MACE system to perform endoscopic examination outside the hospital for patients confined to the community and home.