Double-balloon endoscopy and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome: a new look at an old disease.

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome is a rare disease characterized by mucocutaneous hyperpigmentation and intestinal hamartomatous polyposis. Life-threatening complications include intestinal obstruction and increased risk of gastrointestinal malignancies. While colonoscopy continues to serve as the gold standard for examination of the colon, newer techniques such as capsule endoscopy and double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) are now being applied to both treatment and surveillance of this disease. Capsule endoscopy serves as a minimally invasive means of locating and characterizing polyps in symptomatic patients but is limited to detection only. DBE allows physicians to visit areas of the small bowel that were previously unreachable by older techniques and to treat lesions that are found. By using DBE to treat polyposis, hemorrhagic ulcers, angiodysplasia, strictures, and cancers, the number of small bowel resections can be decreased in these patients.