Our clinical experience with balloon assisted endoscopy for 325 patients with suspected small bowel diseases in Kawasaki Medical School Hospital. *
Balloon assisted endoscopy (BAE) is a novel endoscopic technique developed to investigate small bowel diseases (SBDs). BAE has been installed from 2004 in Kawasaki Medical School Hospital. Since then, 234 patients (107 female, 117 male; mean age 62.6 years) with suspected or known SBDs underwent BAE, and we have performed a total of 325 consecutive BAE procedures. The most common indication for BAE was an obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. Cardiovascular disease was the most major coexisting disease (47 patients, 20.1%), and 53 patients (22.6%) were prescribed anti-platelet and/or anticoagulant therapy. One hundred and fifty eight patients were treated BAE via the oral approach, 167 patients were performed via the anal approach, and 56 patients were treated via the dual approach. The overall diagnostic yield was 24.0% (78/325 cases). Among the 78 cases, there were 23 erosions/ulcerations, 22 tumors, 21 angiovascular lesions, and other SBDs. The subsequent treatments, such as endoscopic therapy and surgical therapy were performed following the BAE procedure in 74.4% (58/78) of cases. BAE is a useful tool that not only allows diagnostic workup of SBDs, but also makes it possible to carry out therapeutic intervention. On the other hand, we should make careful decisions of indications for BAE, because it’s an invasive and complex procedure and the examination requires substantial time to complete. (Accepted on November 10, 2012)
