Capsule Endoscopy

A pill-like capsule with a camera inside is swallowed, and over the next eight hours takes thousands of pictures that are transmitted wirelessly to a recording device worn around the waist. After the recording device is returned to the office, a physician reviews these images by looking at the middle part of the small intestine that cannot be examined through an EGD or colonoscopy. It’s typically used to look for obscure sources of bleeding, Crohn’s disease or other abnormalities of the small intestine. To exclude the possibility of a stricture behind which the capsule could get stuck, we perform a CT enterography or small bowel follow-through before a capsule endoscopy. The capsule is passed in the stool and flushed down the toilet.