P169 Balloon enteroscopy in small bowel Crohn’s disease (CD) with suspected bleeding
Abstract Background Deep enteroscopy with Single Balloon Enteroscopy (SBE) has been used in the evaluation of small bowel diseases and could be performed by a single operator. The role and safety of SBE in suspected small bowel CD with bleeding remained uncertain. Our primary aim was to evaluate the role of SBE in the management of suspected small bowel Crohn’s Disease (CD) with bleeding. The secondary aim was to find out whether SBE could provide definitive diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. Methods Hospitalised patients with iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and/or overt GI bleeding were studied. All had prior negative oesophagogastro-duodenoscopy (OGD) and colonoscopy followed by single operator SBE. The indications were IDA in 28 patients, overt GI bleeding in 18 patients and IDA with abdominal pain and/or weight loss in 6 patients. Twenty and six patients had CT scan and capsule endoscopy done respectively with normal or unconfirmed small bowel lesions. Results Fifty-two patients with suspected small bowel bleeding were studied with mean age of 51 (range 20 -84) years. Small bowel Crohn’s disease were diagnosed in 7 patients with jejunal and ileal involvement in 2 and 5 patients respectively. All patients had subsequent histopathology confirmation from biopsies taken during the procedures. In addition, SBE allowed the retrieval of a stuck capsule scope in a patient with proximal ileal stricture. Repeated balloon dilatation through SBE was done successfully in one patient with distal ileal stricture without complication. Conclusion Small bowel Crohn’s disease was found in 21% of our patients with suspected small bowel bleeding. SBE is the preferred method of small bowel evaluation after negative upper and lower GI evaluation in this selected patients. Definitive diagnosis and targeted biopsies confirmed the diagnosis of CD as compared with radiological imaging and capsule endoscopy. SBE also provided safe therapeutic intervention in those patients with small bowel stricture from CD through endoscopic dilatation.
