Endoscopy
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In patients with obscure digestive bleeding, the bleeding source is frequently located in the small bowel. Capsule endoscopy (CE) is an effective method of investigating the whole small bowel in such patients. In the present study, a diagnostic approach was tested in patients with obscure digestive bleeding in which CE was included as the initial examination of the small bowel when the esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy findings were normal. ⋯ In patients with obscure digestive bleeding, CE positively predicted the intestinal diagnosis or normal status in 95.5 % of cases. A diagnostic approach to obscure digestive bleeding that includes CE after the initial endoscopic work-up thus appears to be a valid strategy for small-bowel examinations.