Small-bowel endoscopy

Abstract

This review of the literature on endoscopy of the small bowel focuses on published reports, and does not include abstracts. The literature was reviewed for the period September 2001 to September 2002. MEDLINE was searched under the topics of "small-bowel endoscopy", "small bowel", "enteroscopy", "obscure bleeding", and "wireless endoscopy", and a hand search was also carried out of the major gastroenterology journals, along with a review of the tables of contents of all journals that could be identified as being related to gastroenterology or gastrointestinal endoscopy. Sonde small-bowel enteroscopy is no longer an option, and has been rightfully retired as an investigation tool for the small bowel. There is still a place for further evaluation of push enteroscopy, as evidenced by the 11 papers published since the last review of small-bowel endoscopy in 2002. In the field of intraoperative enteroscopy, only one series and a handful of case reports have appeared. By contrast, wireless capsule endoscopy of the small bowel has captured the imagination of gastroenterologists throughout the world. Up to 2003, there have not been many published papers concerning this new diagnostic modality, since patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding or suspected small-bowel disease are relatively scarce. Large numbers of abstracts concerning capsule endoscopy have been submitted for presentation at major gastroenterology and gastrointestinal endoscopy meetings over the past 2 years, and the enthusiasm for this new technique of small-bowel imaging has increased with reports of its successful application.