Capsule endoscopy

Capsule endoscopy is a way to record images of the digestive tract for use in medicine. The capsule is the size and shape of a pill and contains a tiny camera. After a patient swallows the capsule, it takes pictures of the inside of the gastrointestinal tract. The primary use of capsule endoscopy is to examine areas of the small intestine that cannot be seen by other types of endoscopy such as colonoscopy or esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). This type of examination is often done to find sources of bleeding or abdominal pain. The procedure was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001.

What are the limitations of capsule endoscopy?

While the capsule provides the best means of viewing the inside of the small intestine, there are many inherent limitations and problems with its use, the most important of which is thatthe capsuledoes not allow for therapy. Other problems include:

1. Abnormalities in some areas of the intestine are missed because of rapid transit of the capsule and blurred, uninterpretable photographs. 
   
2. At times, transit is so slow that the capsule examines only part of the small intestine before the battery fails. 
   
3. If abnormalities are discovered that require surgical resection or further investigation, it may be difficult to determine where in the small intestine the abnormality is and thereby help direct therapy. 
   
4. If there are narrow areas due to scarring (strictures) or tumors in the small intestine, the capsule can get stuck in the narrow area and cause an obstruction of the intestine that requires surgical removal of the capsule. (For this reason, in patients who are suspected of having a stricture, a self-dissolving, dummy capsule is swallowed first. If the dummy capsule sticks, it can be seen on an x-ray of the abdomen and the location of the stricture determined. Because it dissolves with time, however, the obstruction will resolve without surgery, and the real capsule will not be swallowed.) 
   
5. Finally, reviewing the tens of thousands of photographs is very time consuming for the conscientious physician.

USES:

Capsule endoscopy is used to examine parts of the gastrointestinal tract that cannot be seen with other types of endoscopy. Upper endoscopy, also called EGD, uses a camera attached to a long flexible tube to view the esophagus, the stomach and the beginning of the first part of the small intestine called the duodenum. A colonoscope, inserted through the rectum, can view the colon and the distal portion of the small intestine, the terminal ileum. Unfortunately, these two types of endoscopy cannot visualize the majority of the middle portion of the gastrointestinal tract, the small intestine. Capsule endoscopy is useful when disease is suspected in the small intestine and can sometimes diagnose sources of occult bleeding [blood visible microscopically only] or causes of abdominal pain such as Crohn's disease, or peptic ulcers. Capsule endoscopy can be used to diagnose problems in the small intestine, but unlike EGD or colonoscopy, cannot treat pathology that may be discovered. The capsule endoscopy can use bluetooth to transfer the captured images.



If you want to know  more about  capsule endoscopy visit:   www.wolfsonendoscopy.org.uk/capsule-endoscopy-information.html 
watch video of  capsule endoscopy on this blog in downloads section.

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