Case report: laparoscopic-assisted small bowel resection for retained capsule endoscopy using flouroscopy

Abstract

Capsule endoscopy is a frequently used method to evaluate the small bowel, especially in patients with chronic anemia after the upper and lower endoscopies are non-diagnostic. The rate of retention as defined as >2 weeks without passing the capsule is reported in the literature around 1–3% (Liao, 2010). For retained capsules, they can still pass spontaneously if allowed more time but occasionally require retrieval with push enteroscopy. For those infrequent cases that cannot be retrieved with endoscopy, a laparoscopic small bowel resection should be considered as it is both diagnostic and therapeutic. We will describe a case report, brief literature review and some pitfalls and pearls for retained capsule endoscopy using a laparoscopic fluoroscopy-guided small bowel resection.