We aimed to evaluate the impact of emergency single‐balloon enteroscopy (SBE) on the diagnosis and treatment for active overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB).Methods: SBE procedures for OGIB were retrospectively reviewed and sub‐divided according to the bleeding types: active‐overt and inactive‐overt bleeding. The patient's history, laboratory results, endoscopic findings and therapeutic interventions were registered. Emergency SBE was defined as an endoscopy that was performed for active‐overt OGIB, within 24 hours of clinical presentation.Results: Between January 2010 and February 2013, 53 SBEs were performed in 43 patients with overt OGIB. Seventeen emergency SBEs were performed in 15 patients with active overt‐OGIB procedures (group A), which diagnosed the bleeding source in 14: angiodysplasia (n = 5), ulcers/erosions (n = 3), bleeding tumors (gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), n = 3; neuroendocrine tumor, n = 1), and erosioned polyps (n = 2). Endoscopic treatment was performed in nine patients, with one or multiple hemostatic therapies: argon plasma coagulation (n = 5), epinephrine submucosal injection (n = 5), hemostatic clips (n = 3), and polypectomy (n = 2). Twenty‐eight patients with inactive bleeding (group B) were submitted to 36 elective SBEs, which successfully diagnosed 18 cases. The diagnostic yield in group A (93.3%) was significantly higher than in group B (64.3%)—Fisher's exact test, p = 0.038.Conclusion: This study revealed an important role of emergency SBE in the diagnosis of bleeding etiology in active overt OGIB.

Background and aims The effectiveness of endoscopic therapy of small-bowel vascular lesions (SBVL) remains unclear as recent studies report high recurrence rates after 2 years of follow-up. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term rebleeding risk after endoscopic therapy of SBVL and to identify predictive factors of rebleeding. Methods This was a retrospective single-center series of patients with SBVL treated endoscopically between July 2007 and February 2015. Relevant data from patient files, capsule endoscopies, and enteroscopy reports were retrieved. The primary endpoint was long-term rebleeding and the secondary endpoints were risk factors for rebleeding and transfusion requirements. Results Thirty-five patients were included. Capsule endoscopies indicated angioectasias in 74.3% and blood in the remaining; angioectasias were found in 97.1% of enteroscopies. Rebleeding occurred in 40% of patients during a median follow-up of 23 months (interquartile range 9–43). The rebleeding rate at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years was 32.7, 38.3, 46.0, 53.7, and 63.0%, respectively. Only the presence of high-risk comorbidities (aortic valve stenosis, chronic renal or liver disease, or Osler–Weber–Rendu syndrome) was associated with higher rebleeding (P=0.006) in the univariate and multivariate analyses, being 51.3%/67.6% at 1/3 years, compared with 6.7%/22.2% in patients without any of these comorbidities. Transfusion requirements decreased to 6.3 (0.0–6.0) packed red blood cells units the year after endoscopic therapy compared with 11.5 (2.0–17.0) in the previous year (P=0.002). Conclusion More than half of the patients had rebleeding after 5 years of follow-up, although transfusion requirements decreased. Patients with high-risk comorbidities are more likely to rebleed.

Evaluation of the quality of small-bowel cleansing is required to assess the reliability of findings in capsule endoscopy (CE). Moreover, consensus regarding the need of intestinal preparation for CE remains to be achieved. The presence of multiple grading scales for small-bowel preparation in CE, which are time-consuming and complicated, adds difficulty to the comparison of different small-bowel cleansing regimens and their application in clinical practice. Nowadays, a validated scale universally accepted for grading small-bowel cleansing is lacking. In fact, there are numerous grading systems with very different technical characteristics, namely, the parameters and the portion of the CE video that are analyzed, the objectivity of the analysis, the lesser or greater dependency on the operator, and the validation of the score. The authors performed a review which aims to systematize and summarize currently available small-bowel grading scales in CE.

To evaluate the role of small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) on the reclassification of colonic inflammatory bowel disease type unclassified (IBDU). We performed a multicenter, retrospective study including patients with IBDU undergoing SBCE, between 2002 and 2014. SBCE studies were reviewed and the inflammatory activity was evaluated by determining the Lewis score (LS). Inflammatory activity was considered significant and consistent with Crohn’s disease (CD) when the LS ≥ 135. The definitive diagnosis during follow-up (minimum 12 mo following SBCE) was based on the combination of clinical, analytical, imaging, endoscopic and histological elements. Thirty-six patients were included, 21 females (58%) with mean age at diagnosis of 33 ± 13 (15-64) years. The mean follow-up time after the SBCE was 52 ± 41 (12-156) mo. The SBCE revealed findings consistent with significant inflammatory activity in the small bowel (LS ≥ 135) in 9 patients (25%); in all of them the diagnosis of CD was confirmed during follow-up. In 27 patients (75%), the SBCE revealed no significant inflammatory activity (LS < 135); among these patients, the diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) was established in 16 cases (59.3%), CD in 1 case (3.7%) and 10 patients (37%) maintained a diagnosis of IBDU during follow-up. A LS ≥ 135 at SBCE had a sensitivity = 90%, specificity = 100%, positive predictive value = 100% and negative predictive value = 94% for the diagnosis of CD. SBCE proved to be fundamental in the reclassification of patients with IBDU. Absence of significant inflammatory activity in the small intestine allowed exclusion of CD in 94% of cases.

Background and objective: Little is known about the clinical impact of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) in patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS). The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of DBE in the management of small-bowel polyps in PJS patients. Patients and methods: We conducted a multicentre, retrospective cohort study, which included all consecutive patients diagnosed with PJS who underwent DBE for polypectomy between January 2006 and August 2012. In all cases, previous videocapsule enteroscopy had shown at least one polyp ≥ 10 mm in size. Results: Twenty-five patients (13 men; median age 36 years; 14 with prior laparotomy) underwent 46 DBE procedures (1 to 5 per patient, 44 via oral route). Polypectomy was performed in 39/46 DBEs. A total of 214 polyps were removed (median-size 30 mm), with a median number of polypectomies per procedure of 5.0 (range 1-18). The estimated maximum-sizes of resected polyps significantly decreased at each session: 30.0, 25.0, 20.0, 15.0, and 17.5 mm (p = 0.02). In 7 DBEs no polypectomy was performed (4-only minor polyps detected; 3-endoscopic irresecability). Complications occurred in 3/39 of therapeutic procedures (2-minor delayed bleeding; 1-mucosal tear), all of them dealt with conservative or endoscopic therapy. Six patients underwent elective surgery post DBE due to polyps not amenable for endoscopic resection. There were no small-bowel polyp related complications during a median follow-up of 56.5 months. Conclusion: DBE showed to be a safe and effective technique in the management of small-bowel polyps in PJS patients, allowing a presymptomatic and non-surgical approach.

Device-assisted enteroscopies (DAEs) are recent endoscopic techniques that enable direct endoscopic small-bowel evaluation. The objective of this article is to evaluate the implementation of DAEs in Portugal and assess the main indications, diagnoses, diagnostic yield, therapeutic yield and complication rate. We conducted a multicenter retrospective series using a national Web-based survey on behalf of the Portuguese Small-Bowel Study Group. Participants were asked to fill out two online databases regarding procedural data, indications, diagnoses, endoscopic therapy and complications using prospectively collected institutional data records. A total of eight centers were enrolled in the survey, corresponding to 1411 DAEs. The most frequent indications were obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB), inflammatory bowel disease and small-bowel tumors. The pooled diagnostic yield was 63%. A relation between the diagnostic yield and the indications was clear, with a diagnostic yield for OGIB of 69% (p = 0.02) with a 52% therapeutic yield. Complications occurred in 1.2%, with a major complication rate of 0.57%. Perforations occurred in four patients (0.28%). DAEs are safe and effective procedures, with complication rates of 1.2%, the most serious of which is perforation. Most procedures are performed in the setting of OGIB. Diagnostic and therapeutic yields are dependent on the indication, hence appropriate patient selection is crucial.