Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Apr 16, 2018; 10(4): 74-82
Published online Apr 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i4.74
Impact of the timing of capsule endoscopy in overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding on yield and rebleeding rate - is sooner than 14 d advisable?
Catarina Gomes, Rolando Pinho, Adélia Rodrigues, Ana Ponte, Joana Silva, Jaime Pereira Rodrigues, Mafalda Sousa, João Carlos Silva, João Carvalho
Catarina Gomes, Rolando Pinho, Adélia Rodrigues, Ana Ponte, Joana Silva, Jaime Pereira Rodrigues, Mafalda Sousa, João Carlos Silva, João Carvalho, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Porto 4434502, Portugal
Author contributions: Gomes C and Pinho R designed the study, performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the paper; Rodrigues A, Ponte A, Silva J, Rodrigues JP, Sousa M, Silva JC and Carvalho J performed the research and analyzed the data.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
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: Catarina Gomes, MD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Rua Conceição Fernandes, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto 4434502, Portugal. catarina.rib.gomes@gmail.com
Telephone: +351-22-7865100 Fax: +351-22-7868369
Received: December 3, 2017
Peer-review started: December 4, 2017
First decision: December 22, 2017
Revised: January 18, 2018
Accepted: March 14, 2018
Article in press: March 15, 2018
Published online: April 16, 2018
Processing time: 133 Days and 16.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: An early diagnosis with capsule endoscopy (CE) in overt-obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) patients can lead to an appropriate specific intervention, better long term-outcomes and reduce unnecessary medical costs. In this paper we evaluated the impact of the timing of CE in these patients. ESGE recommends performing CE as soon as possible after the bleeding episode, optimally within 14 d. We found that in spite of a similar diagnostic yield, performing CE within 48 h is associated with greater therapeutic yield, less rebleeding episodes, and a longer rebleeding-free time. This suggests that a more timely approach in the evaluation of overt-OGIB than the 14 d recommendation is advisable.