Capsule endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) has become a major tool for the assessment of small bowel diseases. For Crohn’s disease (CD), VCE could be used for suspected, known, or relapsed CD with a high sensitivity and low specificity. Inflammatory CD of small bowel can be reliably assessed by VCE, but the usage of VCE in the evaluation of structuring or penetrating CD is not recommended. In addition, VCE in the diagnosis or surveillance of patients, with ulcerative colitis or ileal pouch disorders, is still controversial. The risk of capsule retention in patients with suspected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) without obstructive symptoms and history of small bowel resection or known stenosis is low. In all, VCE is a beneficial supplementary method for the examination for selected IBD patients.