Acute small-bowel perforation secondary to capsule endoscopy.

摘要

Wireless capsule endoscopy (CE) has revolutionized the evaluation of the GI tract. The capsule was developed for the examination of the small bowel, which has largely been inaccessible to conventional endoscopic methods. The primary indication for CE is obscure-occult GI bleeding. CE has proven to be an extraordinarily safe device to use. More than 400,000 capsules have been used worldwide, with no reported deaths and with few adverse effects. Nevertheless, complications have been described at all levels of the GI tract. The most important risk is the capsule retention from unsuspected small-bowel stricture. A single case of intestinal perforation from impaction of a capsule retained in the intestinal lumen for 2 months, without producing symptoms, was recently reported in literature. We report the first case of a patient with capsule impaction that caused an acute small-bowei perforation, which occurred immediately after the capsule examination was completed.