Systematic Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2017; 23(45): 8073-8081
Published online Dec 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i45.8073
Double-balloon enteroscopy-assisted dilatation avoids surgery for small bowel strictures: A systematic review
Judith E Baars, Ruben Theyventhiran, Patrick Aepli, Payal Saxena, Arthur J Kaffes
Judith E Baars, Ruben Theyventhiran, Patrick Aepli, Payal Saxena, Arthur J Kaffes, AW Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney NSW 2050, Australia
Author contributions: Baars JE performed the research and wrote the manuscript, Theyventhiran R and Aepli P collected and reviewed the data; Saxena P and Kaffes AJ managed the study; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Arthur J Kaffes, MBBS, FRACP, Associate Professor, AW Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Suite G10, RPA Medical Centre, 100 Carillon Ave, Camperdown, Sydney NSW 2050, Australia. arthur@kaffes.com
Telephone: +61-295-162033 Fax: +61-295-160778
Received: July 20, 2017
Peer-review started: July 20, 2017
First decision: September 4, 2017
Revised: September 17, 2017
Accepted: October 17, 2017
Article in press: October 17, 2017
Published online: December 7, 2017
Processing time: 137 Days and 8.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: At present there is a wealth of literature on the value of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) in the management of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. However, there is only few data regarding its role in small bowel strictures and these patients often face surgery. In our study we show that DBE-assisted endoscopic balloon dilation offers safe and effective treatment of small bowel strictures. Surgery can be avoided in 80% of cases. Moreover, we propose a flow-chart representing a standard approach to small bowel strictures.