A 60-year-old Italian man arrived at our department with abdominal distension and acute periumbilical pain. Over the two preceding years, our patient had undergone an extensive negative workup performed for recurrent episodes of abdominal pain and diarrhea, including comprehensive blood and stool studies, CT, abdominal ultrasound, esophogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, barium enema and small bowel follow-through. Twenty-four hours prior to his arrival, our patient had undergone CE, the results of which were still pending.\nOn admission, our patient was febrile. His physical examination revealed a distended abdomen with increased bowel sounds and marked tenderness in the right lower quadrant. Laboratory tests showed a white blood cell count of 16,300 cells/mL (normal: 4,500 to 10,500 cells/mL) and hemoglobin of 10.7g/dL (normal: 12g/dL to 16g/dL).\nA CT scan of his abdomen was performed and showed the presence of the capsule endoscope located in his distal ileum and a stricture along with extensive small bowel distension, a thickened bowel wall and loculated free air (Figure ). Our patient underwent an urgent laparotomy. During the surgical exploration, an ileum perforation was noted proximal to an inflammatory-like stricture located in his distal ileum (Figure ), which led to the resection of the inflamed segment with ileocolic anastomosis. Histology confirmed the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. His postsurgical course was uneventful, and our patient was discharged 10 days later and treated subsequently with medications for Crohn’s disease with good results.
A 63-year-old female presented with iron-deficiency anaemia (haemoglobin 44 g/L, ferritin 190 mcg/L). After unremarkable upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopies and biopsies, she was referred for wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE).\nThe WCE study demonstrated an area of ulceration and stenosis in the distal jejunum. The capsule failed to pass the pathology within the duration of the capsule's battery life (approximately 14 hours). Four days following ingestion, the patient presented with 48 hours of increasing generalised abdominal pain and nausea, but no vomiting. She had a mild fever of 37.8°C. On examination, the abdomen was distended and tympanic on percussion and generally tender, but there was no guarding. A plain abdominal X-ray () demonstrated multiple dilated loops of small bowel and air-fluid levels, suggestive of a small bowel obstruction. The wireless capsule can be seen in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen () demonstrated the wireless capsule in the distal ileum, 15 cm proximal to the ileocaecal junction with evidence of perforation at this level. There was diffuse thickening of the terminal ileum distal to site of perforation.\nAt laparotomy, there was four-quadrant feculent peritonitis. The site of terminal ileum perforation was on the antimesenteric border, 15 cm from the ileocaecal valve, with the wireless capsule in situ (). There was a 5 cm segment of markedly thickened ileum distal to the site of perforation. The resected specimen was histologically consistent with Crohn's disease. The patient recovered well and was discharged from hospital five days after her operation.