Panenteric capsule endoscopy in gastrointestinal bleeding - time to change old habits?

Purpose of review: Capsule endoscopy (CE) is an effective tool for small bowel evaluation. Recent technical advancements, including long-lasting batteries and enhanced optics, have enabled featured capsules (panenteric capsules, PCs) to potentially assess the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The PC provides a potential easy-to-use, comprehensive, single-device approach for evaluating GI bleeding patients. This review critically examines the potential role of PC in patients with GI bleeding by highlighting benefits, limitations, open issues, and future challenges.

Recent findings: Evidence on PC for GI bleeding patients remains limited. Two retrospective studies and one recent prospective trial consistently show that when used in the workup of GI bleeding patients, PC is safe, feasible, achieves high diagnostic yield (both in the small and large bowel), and potentially reduces the need for unnecessary colonoscopies. Nevertheless, current challenges include the need for extensive bowel preparation, incomplete colon evaluation, and limited access to trained readers.

Summary: The PC holds promise for optimizing the diagnostic workup of GI bleeding patients. However, significant challenges remain. Robust clinical trials comparing standard diagnostic methods to PC-based workup are needed before the adoption of PC in managing bleeding patients in clinical practice.