The Evolution of Device-Assisted Enteroscopy: From Sonde Enteroscopy to Motorized Spiral Enteroscopy

The introduction of capsule endoscopy in 2001 opened the last “black box” of the gastrointestinal tract enabling complete visualization of the small bowel. Since then, numerous new developments in the field of deep enteroscopy have emerged expanding the diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium against small bowel diseases. The ability to achieve total enteroscopy and visualize the entire small bowel remains the holy grail in enteroscopy. Our journey in the small bowel started historically with sonde type enteroscopy and ropeway enteroscopy. Currently, double-balloon enteroscopy, single-balloon enteroscopy, and spiral enteroscopy are available in clinical practice. Recently, a novel motorized enteroscope has been described with the potential to shorten procedure time and allow for total enteroscopy in one session. In this review, we will present an overview of the currently available techniques, indications, diagnostic yield, and complications of device-assisted enteroscopy.

Endoscopic Delivery Method Using a Retrieval Net for Patients with Small-Bowel Capsule Endoscopy Stagnation in the Stomach

With the increasing use of capsule endoscopy (CE), screening tests for the small bowel can be performed with minimal invasiveness. However, occasionally, the entire small bowel cannot be observed because of decreased peristalsis of the stomach. For such cases, we perform delivery of CE by an endoscope. We retrospectively examined the usefulness of the endoscopic delivery method using a retrieval net for patients with CE stagnation in the stomach. From 2,270 patients who underwent small-bowel CE at Hiroshima University Hospital from January 2013 to January 2020, 29 consecutive patients (1.3% of the total number) in whom the small bowel could not be observed due to CE stagnation in the stomach at the time of the initial CE underwent the endoscopic delivery method using a retrieval net for secondary small-bowel CE. This study included 16 male (55%) and 13 female (45%) patients with a mean age of 69.2 ± 13.2 years . 11 patients (38%) had a history of gastrointestinal surgical resection. The entire small bowel could be observed in 19 patients (66%), and CE reached the terminal ileum in the remaining patients. A history of gastrointestinal surgical resection was significantly more frequent in the group where the entire small bowel could not be observed. The rate of small-bowel lesion detection was 55% (16/29). There were no adverse events associated with our endoscopic delivery method. Thus, the endoscopic delivery method using a retrieval net for patients with initial CE stagnation in the stomach may be safe and useful for the detection of small-bowel lesions.

Diagnostic Yields and Clinical Impacts of Capsule Endoscopy

Observing the entire small bowel is difficult due to the presence of complex loops and a long length. Capsule endoscopy (CE) provides a noninvasive and patient-friendly method for visualizing the small bowel and colon. Small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) has a critical role in the diagnosis of small bowel disorders through the direct observation of the entire small bowel mucosa and is becoming the primary diagnostic tool for small bowel diseases. Recently, colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) was also considered safe and feasible for obtaining sufficient colonic images in patients with incomplete colonoscopy, in the absence of bowel obstruction. This review article assesses the current status of CE in terms of the diagnostic yield and the clinical impact of SBCE in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, who have known or suspected Crohn’s disease, small bowel tumor and inherited polyposis syndrome, celiac disease, and those who have undergone CCE.

Motorized Spiral Enteroscopy: to infinity and beyond?

With the advent of device-assisted enteroscopy (DAE) in the early 2000s, endoscopic access to the entire small bowel is possible nowadays (1). And yet, there is still room for improvement. Total enteroscopy remains a time-consuming procedure, often combining the antegrade (oral) and retrograde (anal) approach with only a reasonable chance to obtain complete endoscopy of the entire small bowel (2). Therefore, the aim is to go faster, deeper and to perform more advanced therapeutic interventions within the long and tortuous small bowel. Moreover, DAE was also shown to be effective to perform endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in patients with surgically altered anatomy and to complete colonoscopy in patients with previously incomplete conventional colonoscopy due to long dolichocolon (3). The latest DAE development is Motorized Spiral Enteroscopy (MSE), initially conceptualized as a manually driven rotational spiral overtube by Paul A. Akerman, and further developed and commercialized as a motorized spiral overtube by the Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (4). Initial feasibility trials have shown that MSE can compete with already available DAE techniques (single- and double-balloon enteroscopy) with regard to diagnostic yield and endotherapy within the small bowel (5,6). However, being a short type enteroscope of 168 cm (as compared to the 200 cm long single- and double-balloon enteroscopes), MSE appears to be even more effective in obtaining deep and total enteroscopy with a relatively short procedural duration (2,6). In addition, the working channel diameter is increased to 3.2 mm (as compared to 2.8 mm) with an extra irrigation channel, facilitating therapeutic interventions within the small bowel. This faster and deeper (but more aggressive) enteroscopy technique comes with the price of an increased risk of mucosal injuries (ranging from superficial bruising to laceration and even perforation) within the oesophagus and the small bowel, luckily remaining asymptomatic most of the time without any clinical consequence (6). So far, this promising new technique has the potential of becoming a gamechanger in the still evolving field of deep enteroscopy.

Right paraduodenal hernia with extensive bowel gangrene treated with staged surgery: a Bogota bag followed by resection in a low-resource setting

We report a case of right paraduodenal hernia with strangulation of almost the entire small bowel at presentation. Since resection of all bowel of doubtful viability would have resulted in too little residual length to sustain life, a Bogota bag was fashioned using transparent plastic material from an urine drainage bag and the patient monitored intensively for 18 hours. At re-laparotomy, clear demarcation lines had formed with adequate length of viable bowel (100 cm) and resection with anastomosis was done with a good outcome on follow-up, 9 months after surgery. Our description of a rare cause of strangulated intestinal obstruction and a novel method of maximising length of viable bowel is reported for its successful outcome in a low-resource setting.

Endoscopy in Small Bowel Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a complex disorder with variable age of onset, disease location and behavior. It is characterized by a transmural inflammation that may involve any portion of the gastrointestinal tract. Ileocolonoscopy with biopsy is established as the first-line investigation for suspected CD. However, small bowel involvement is more difficult to assess by conventional endoscopy. Therefore, radiological imaging should also be performed to complement ileocolonoscopy in all patients with suspected CD. Recently, video capsule endoscopy and device-assisted enteroscopy have revolutionized the management of small bowel CD. In fact, video capsule endoscopy is a non-invasive test that provides the visualization of the entire small bowel mucosa, which can assist in the diagnosis of CD and assess the therapeutic response. On the other hand, device-assisted enteroscopy enables direct tissue sampling for histopathology confirmation when traditional endoscopy, video capsule endoscopy and cross-sectional imaging are inconclusive. Moreover, it allows therapeutic interventions such as balloon stricture dilation. In this chapter, we review the role of endoscopy in the diagnosis and management of patients with small bowel CD.

ACE Inhibitor Induced Isolated Angioedema of the Small Bowel: A Rare Complication of a Common Medication

Angioedema is a subcutaneous or submucosal tissue swelling due to capillary leakage and transudation of fluid into the interstitial tissue. It can be localized or generalized as part of a widespread reaction known as anaphylaxis. Millions of people in United States and all over the world receive ACEI antihypertensive therapy. ACEI is known to cause angioedema with an incidence of 0.7 percent. We present a case of 40-year-old female who was started on lisinopril three days prior to presentation for newly diagnosed hypertension. She presented with nonspecific severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. She denied having difficulty breathing or swelling anywhere in the body. On exam, she did not have facial, lip, tongue, or throat swelling. Her abdomen was tender without guarding or rigidity. Laboratory examination was unrevealing except for mild leukocytosis. Computed tomography scan (CT scan) of the abdomen with oral and IV contrast revealed a moderate amount of ascites with diffuse wall thickening, hyperenhancement, and mucosal edema of the entire small bowel. In the absence of any other pathology, matching history, and imaging findings highly suggestive of angioedema, she was diagnosed with isolated small bowel angioedema as a result of ACEI therapy. She was managed conservatively, and lisinopril was discontinued. A week later on follow-up, all her symptoms had resolved, and repeat CT scan showed resolution of all findings.

Two simultaneous intussusceptions in a neonate with DiGeorge syndrome: A case report

Background: Double simultaneous intussusception is a peculiar and rare variety of intussusception with only 3 previously reported neonatal cases. Case presentation: A 15-day-old male neonate with respiratory distress was found to have Tetralogy of Fallot and hypoplastic pulmonary stenosis. Small bowel intussusception was diagnosed on ultrasound abdomen following hematochezia on the next day. Emergency laparotomy revealed two intussusceptions, ileocolic and jejunojejunal, with bowel gangrenous requiring resection and anastomosis. No pathological lead point was identified. He recovered with supportive care and was discharged. Conclusion: Simultaneously occurring double intussusceptions are extremely rare in neonates, and thorough examination of the entire small bowel in cases of intussusception is key to the diagnosis.

Prelimenary results of red lesion segmentation in WCE images

Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a novel imaging technique that can view the entire small bowel in human body. Thus, it is presented as an excellent diagnostic tool for evaluation of gastrointestinal diseases compared with traditional endoscopies. However, the diagnosis by the physicians is tedious since it requires reviewing the video extracted from the capsule and analysing all of its frames. This tedious task has encouraged the researchers to provide automated diagnostic technics for WCE frameworks to detect symptoms of gastrointestinal illness. In this paper, we present the prelimenary results of red lesion detection in WCE images using Dense-Unet deep learning segmentation model. To this end, we have used a dataset containing two subsets of anonymized video capsule endoscopy images with annotated red lesions. The first set, used in this work, has 3,295 non-sequential frames and their corresponding annotated masks. The results obtained by the proposed scheme are promising.

Technical Approach to Laparoscopic Examination of the Small Bowel in Gallstone Ileus

Background. Gallstone ileus is an infrequent cause of small bowel obstructions (SBO), accounting for only 0.1-5% of SBOs and 25% of nonstrangulating causes of SBO in the elderly population. There is scant literature available regarding the use of laparoscopy to treat gallstone ileus. Currently, much of the literature available is limited to case reports only. Methods. A complete laparoscopic approach was utilized to manage a 65-year-old woman with morbid obesity who presented with gallstone ileus. With regard to our technical approach, we describe the technical approach that facilitates safe laparoscopic examination of the entire small bowel and can be applied to other acute care surgery cases involving small bowel pathology. Results. The patient’s postoperative course was complicated by new-onset atrial fibrillation which was treated medically with good response. She was safely discharged on postoperative day 2. Conclusion. Laparoscopy is a feasible option for the management of gallstone ileus and can lead to decreased morbidity compared to laparotomy. The technique described allows for laparoscopic examination of the entire small bowel.