It’s simple, painless and you don’t have to hang around the hospital all day. Swallowing a pill camera is the latest way for GI patients to have their small bowel imaged, while going about their daily routine.
“It’s the so-called “black box” because it’s very difficult to image,” says Calgary gastroenterologist Dr. Catherine Dube.
“It’s very long, redundant, loops are over-lapping, so x-rays can’t give you an accurate view,” she adds.
Capsule endoscopy is now being used by the Calgary Health Region, to diagnose a handful of conditions including Crohn’s disease, gastro-intestinal bleeding, suspected bowel tumors and complications of Celiac disease.
“Since the capsule came into effect, studies show it yields much more findings of clinical relevance. It’s a huge step from where we were a few years ago,” says Dube, who admits x-rays, nuclear medicine scans and traditional push endoscopies can miss things.
The camera is a disposable non re-usable device, about the size of a multi-vitamin. It houses a small camera, light source and battery.
It takes eight hours to make its way through the entire digestive system, snapping 50,000 images along the way. They are sent and stored in a data recorder worn externally by the patient.
Dr. Dube says it’s tempting to use the capsule camera to diagnose all sorts of GI problems, but admits it wouldn’t make financial sense.
“You have to remember the capsule costs $850, and it’s not re-usable, add to this the time spent reading the study and the nurses’ time, so it’s an expensive test,” she says.
The only risk to the patient is a 1% chance of retaining the capsule. If it isn’t eventually excreted naturally, a surgical removal may be required.
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