Portal Hypertensive Enteropathy, Occult Bleeding, and Capsule Endoscopy: Where Do We Go from Here?

Excerpt

Portal hypertension (PH) has many complications, some life-threatening. Historically, esophageal (EV) and gastric varices (GV), portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG), and ascites were associated with PH [1]. Until just over a decade ago, the endoscopic examination of the small intestine was limited by its length. At the dawn of the millennium, deep enteroscopy (wireless or device-assisted) has been advanced by the advent of double-balloon technique and wireless capsule endoscopy (CE) [2, 3]. Since then, deep enteroscopy has identified portal hypertensive enteropathy (PHE) as a potentially significant complication of PH [4]. Due to its inherent advantages, CE has the latter has become the preferred method for PHE detection, particularly in the West [2]. …