Single-center experience of 309 consecutive patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.

AIM

To investigate the diagnostic yield of capsule endoscopy (CE) in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB), and to determine whether the yield was affected by different bleeding status.

METHODS

Three hundred and nine consecutive patients (all with recent negative gastric and colonic endoscopy results) were investigated with CE; 49 cases with massive bleeding and 260 cases with chronic recurrent overt bleeding. Data regarding OGIB were obtained by retrospective chart review and review of an internal database of CE findings.

RESULTS

Visualization of the entire small intestine was achieved in 81.88% (253/309) of cases. Clinically positive findings occurred in 53.72% (166/309) of cases. The positivity of the massive bleeding group was slightly higher than that of the chronic recurrent overt bleeding group but there was no significant difference (59.18% vs 52.69%, P > 0.05) between the two groups. Small intestinal tumors were the most common finding in the entire cohort, these accounted for 30% of clinically significant lesions. In the chronic recurrent overt bleeding group angioectasia incidence reached more than 29%, while in the massive bleeding group, small intestinal tumors were the most common finding at an incidence of over 51%. Increasing patient age was associated with positive diagnostic yield of CE and the findings of OGIB were different according to age range. Four cases were compromised due to the capsule remaining in the stomach during the entire test, and another patient underwent emergency surgery for massive bleeding. Therefore, the complication rate was 1.3%.

CONCLUSION

In this study CE was proven to be a safe, comfortable, and effective procedure, with a high rate of accuracy for diagnosing OGIB.