[Retention of a videoendoscopy capsule leading to small bowel obstruction in a patient with recurrence of rectum carcinoma].

Wireless capsule endoscopy has become the most sensitive and most specific diagnostic modality for evaluation of the mucosa of the small bowel and is increasingly used by gastroenterologists. The most important complication is retention of the video capsule in patients with pre-existing strictures of the small bowel. We report on a case of a 73-year-old man who underwent capsule endoscopy because of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. The capsule was retained in the ileum leading to small bowel obstruction during the following days. Surgery demonstrated that the capsule had been retained in a segment of the ileum which was infiltrated by a recurrence of rectum carcinoma. Radiologists should know this complication of capsule endoscopy as well as the relative importance of the radiographic techniques for evaluating the small bowel, which possibly could predict a free passage of the video capsule.