Capsule endoscopy: a review from the clinician's perspectives.

The possibility of visualization of the small bowel has dramatically improved with the introduction of capsule endoscopy (CE) and it has rapidly become standard practice in investigating diseases of the small bowel. Nowadays, there are many reasons to perform CE: most often suspected obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and small bowel neoplasia. CE has higher diagnostic yields than other (more invasive) diagnostic modalities for most of these indications. Furthermore, there are virtually no real contra-indications anymore for the procedure. CE appears also to be safe in selected paediatric cases in which it has similar diagnostic yields compared with adults. This review is a practical update for the clinician on CE, including the complementary role of double balloon enteroscopy and the new developments of Pillcam ESO and the Pillcam COLON.