Usefulness of wireless capsule endoscopy in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

Background Small bowel endoscopy is critical in revealing an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) previously undetected and in classifying the IBD patients, i.e. Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Methods A prospective paediatric study on the usefulness of wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) was performed in 117 children (age range: 4–17 years) with established or suspected IBD and compared with non endoscopic imaging tools. All patients underwent upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy. Results In Crohn's disease patients (CD, n = 44), small bowel lesions were revealed by imaging tools in 8 and by WCE in 18 patients, respectively ( p < 0.01). No small bowel involvement was observed in 29 ulcerative colitis patients by both imaging tools and WCE. Of 26 unclassified IBD, small bowel lesions typical of Crohn's disease were detected by imaging in 7 and by WCE in 16 ( p < 0.05). Of 18 patients with suspected IBD, small bowel lesions typical of Crohn's disease were observed in 9 with WCE, vs. only in 4 with imaging ( p < 0.01). No cases of capsule retention occurred. Conclusions WCE is valuable in revealing small bowel lesions in children with a previous diagnosis of CD and unexplained clinical and laboratory data. It is also helpful in unclassified IBD patients. This tool can influence the management and the course of IBD.