Patients presenting with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) or overt GI bleeding are often submitted to conventional upper GI endoscopy and colonoscopy, followed by small bowel capsule endoscopy if diagnosis remains elusive. Recently, however, the possibility of performing pan-intestinal endoscopy using a video capsule that evaluates both the small bowel and the colon in a single non-invasive examination, opens new perspectives for the management of those conditions, particularly when the initial upper GI endoscopy has been non-diagnostic. The authors hypothesize that performing early pan-intestinal capsule endoscopy strategy may allow, in a safe and well tolerated manner, to identify which patients would benefit of further interventions, such as colonoscopy or invasive enteroscopy, guided by findings pre-identified at capsule examination. The study aims to evaluate whether pan-intestinal capsule endoscopy is superior to the current standard strategy of conventional colonoscopy after non-diagnostic upper endoscopy in patients with IDA or overt GI bleeding, regarding diagnostic yield, safety and tolerability.
The authors hypothesize that in patients with iron deficiency anemia or gastrointestinal bleeding, pan-intestinal capsule endoscopy is a safe and well tolerated procedure that may improve diagnostic yield comparatively to the current standard invasive colonoscopy.