Application and safety of double balloon enteroscopy in patients with small bowel hemorrhage / 中国内镜杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the feasibility and the diagnostic yield of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) examinations for small bowel bleeding (SBB). Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 52 cases with small bowel bleeding between June 2015 and July 2016,and all was treated with DBE. therapeutic outcome, complications and follow-up were compared. Results The study included 52 patients (28 males and 24 females) with an average age of (51.0 ± 17.0) years (16~82 years) and onset time (8.3 ± 4.0) days (1~14 days) . 25 using oral route and 21 using the anal route, 1 using the colon ifstula route, a combination of using oral and anal (n=4).The bleeding source was identiifed in 40 of 52 patients (76.9%), complication rate was 5.8%(3/52), and rebleeding rate was 16.7%(2/12). The endoscopic treatments included polypectomies (n=5), argon plasma coagulation (APC, n=2), surgical treatment (n=14, 26.9%), and foreign-body extraction (n=1). Patients were diagnosed with the followingtumors (n=9, 17.3%), ulcers (n=9, 17.3%), Crohn’s disease (n=7, 13.5%), polyps (n=5, 9.6%), diverticulum (n=4, 7.7%). Patients with small bowel bleeding were followed up for a mean period of (8.3±2.0) months (range 4~10 months), 2 deaths were dying from small bowel cancer. Conclusions DBE is a safe endoscopic technique for patients with small bowel bleeding and can be safely carried out even after Roux-en-Y operation. Tumors, ulcers and Crohn’s disease are very common causes of SBB. The rebleeding rate after a negative DBE is considerable, especially small bowel vascular lesions.