A narrative review of recent progress and current perspectives on video capsule endoscopy

Abstract

: Since its introduction in 2000, capsule endoscopy (CE) has undergone various improvements, with several CE types currently available across the globe. This review focuses on the current status and expected future developments in small-bowel CE (SBCE) and colon CE (CCE). In addition to the demonstrated efficacy of SBCE in identifying the source of bleeding in obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB), the advent of patency capsules allowed the use of SBCE as a feasible option in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), with several studies demonstrating the efficacy of SBCE in assessing CD activity. Following its first use in 2006, second-generation CCEs with the adaptive frame rate function, which automatically recognizes the movement speed of the capsule and accelerates the frame rate, are currently used worldwide. The utility of CCE in detecting colorectal polyps and assessing disease activity in ulcerative colitis (UC) has been reported. Recent efforts are focused on the development in artificial intelligence-based reading systems for CE images. Although there are currently few commercially available systems, several convolutional neural network-based models have been reported to detect small intestinal mucosal disorders, including erosions and ulcers, angioectasia, blood, polyps, celiac disease, and parasites. Further research is expected to reduce the burden of reading CE images on clinicians.