Twelve years of experience using double-balloon enteroscopy for diagnosing and treating patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding

Abstract

<p><strong>Aim: </strong>Double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) is a medical procedure employed for the assessment of small intestines that are inaccessible by standard endoscopes and colonoscopes. This study aimed to assess the data obtained from DBE procedures conducted to investigate the underlying causes of iron deficiency anemia and gastrointestinal bleeding when traditional diagnostic approaches were inconclusive.</p><p><strong>Material and Methods: </strong>The present investigation is a retrospective study conducted at a single center. The medical data pertaining to DBE procedures conducted at the Gastroenterology Clinic of Ankara Türkiye Yüksek Ihtisas Training and Research Hospital was collected by the researchers for the period spanning from January 2007 to December 2018. The present investigation employed exclusion criteria to eliminate individuals with inadequate medical records and those who were transferred to another institution without a confirmed diagnosis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The study comprised a sample size of 118 individuals, with 45 (38.1%) being female and 73 (61.9%) being male. The average age of the participants was found to be 54.98 ± 16.1 years. A total of 88 patients received the procedure utilizing an anterograde (oral) method, while in 13 patients it was performed retrograde (anal). Additionally, 17 patients got the procedure utilizing both approaches. The observed lesions consisted of 18 (31.5%) inflammatory, 26 (45.6%) vascular, 9 (15.7%) neoplastic, and 4 (7%) diverticular kinds. Using double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE), it was found that 49.1% of the patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) had a positive result. A total of 22 instances (18.6%) necessitated the use of interventional techniques.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Consequently, the diagnostic efficacy of double-balloon enteroscopy in obscure gastrointestinal bleeding was very limited. The frequent location of the lesion varied depending on its nature; however, this variation did not yield a statistically significant difference when considering the presence of overt or occult bleeding.</p&gt