Olympus capsule endoscopy for small bowel examination.

The video capsule endoscope has been developed to allow for direct examination of the small bowel in a safe, noninvasive and well-tolerated manner. The Olympus capsule endoscope, recently developed, with technology based on a charge-coupled device (CCD) and with electronic enhancement of image quality, differs from the Given capsule by a high-resolution CCD and an external real-time image viewer (External Viewer) monitor. The most frequent indications for video capsule endoscopy of the small bowel are the diagnosis of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, angiodysplasia, Crohn's disease, celiac disease, hereditary polyposis syndromes, small bowel tumors. The following technical imaging review examines the current data and recent developments pertaining to diagnosis of small bowel lesions by video capsule endoscopy: indications, contraindications, diagnostic yield, spectrum of lesions.