Small-Bowel Capsule Endoscopy in Clinical Practice: Has Anything Changed Over 13 Years?

In Lombardia, one of the 20 Italian administrative Regions, small-bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) was introduced in 2001. In January 2011, the Regional Health Authorities established a reimbursement for outpatient SBCE.

To prospectively record data on SBCE between 2011-2013 and compare them to similar data retrospectively collected from the same geographical area (covering the period 2001-2008) and published in 2008.

Consecutive SBCEs performed between January 2011 and December 2013 in Lombardia were prospectively collected.

In 3 years, 3142 SBCEs were collected; the diagnostic yield (DY) and the overall complication rate were 48.4 and 0.9%, respectively. The main indication was suspected small-bowel bleeding (76.6% of patients); complete small-bowel inspection was achieved in 2796 (89.0%) patients. SBCE was performed as an outpatient procedure in 1945 patients (61.9%). A significant increase in the rate of patients undergoing SBCE for suspected small-bowel bleeding was observed from 2001-2008 to 2011-2013 (67.3 vs. 76.1%; p < 0.001). There was an increase in the number of complete small-bowel examinations (81.2 vs. 89.0%; p < 0.001) and of outpatient SBCEs (6.7 vs. 61.9%; p < 0.001). Conversely, both the retention rate (2.1 vs. 0.8%; p < 0.001) and the rate of patients undergoing SBCE for Crohn's disease (11.5 vs. 5.5%; p < 0.001) decreased significantly. The overall DY remained stable (50.6 vs. 48.4%; p = 0.089).

Our study shows that, over 13 years, the SBCE safety profile and completion rate significantly improved over time; a change in the spectrum of clinical indications was also observed.