What is capsule endoscopy?

Information may not be reliable

Endoscopy means “seeing inside” in Latin. The procedure allows your doctor to see the inner surfaces of your gastrointestinal tract. What makes capsule endoscopy, sometimes called a pill-cam, different from conventional tube endoscopy is the kind of camera involved. With capsule endoscopy, you swallow a tiny camera encased in a clear, smooth shell; the camera takes pictures of your digestive system as it moves down your esophagus, into your stomach and through your small intestine. As the pill-sized camera moves through your digestive system, it transmits thousands of images to a recording device you wear around your waist or neck.  At Manhattan Gastroenterology, we offer service based on the indication and will be glad to speak with you about its uses in detail.

Traditional endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures give your doctor the ability to examine the upper and lower portions of your gastrointestinal tract, but seeing the middle portions, including the duodenum, jejunum and ileum of the small intestine, was once unreachable to cameras. Capsule endoscopy sheds light on the middle regions of the gastrointestinal tract without exploratory surgery. Swallowing the tiny camera can reveal the source of gastrointestinal bleeding, detect bowel inflammation from Crohn’s disease, find tumors and see ulcers.  People who may have celiac disease can benefit from this type of endoscopy to get a definitive diagnosis and monitor intestinal inflammation without an invasive procedure.

The diagnostic procedure is almost as simple as swallowing a pill the size of a large vitamin tablet, but this capsule contains lights, a wireless transmitter and a camera housed in clear plastic. Our gastroenterologists, GI doctors will fit you with a monitoring device to wear as the pill moves through you. Some monitors are connected to adhesive patches the doctor will place on your abdomen. For the next 12 hours, you will wear the monitoring device as the capsule moves slowly through your gastrointestinal tract.

You will not feel any unusual sensations during the test, but the camera you have swallowed will be working overtime. During a typical test, the camera takes about 50,000 pictures of your stomach and intestinal walls. Like a camera flash, the LED lights in the capsule provide light for the images the camera takes and transmits to the compact monitoring device you wear.

After the wireless camera completes its tour of your stomach, small intestine and colon, it is expelled. The capsule may emerge after a few hours, or it may not make its reappearance for up to 72 hours; both possibilities are normal. The camera is disposable and can be flushed, so you do not need to retrieve it. The information it gathered is stored in the monitoring device, not the capsule.

Read more: https://www.manhattangastroenterology.com/procedures/small-bowel-capsule/

Manhattan Gastroenterology
Union Square
55 W. 17th St, Ste 102,
New York, NY 10011
(212) 378-9983

Upper East Side
983 Park Ave, Ste 1D,
New York, NY 10028
(212) 427-8761
https://www.manhattangastroenterology.com

Our Locations on the Map: 
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Nearby Locations:
Union Square
Gramercy Park | Rose Hill | Kips Bay | Nomad | Murray Hill | Koreatown
10010 | 10016 | 10453 | 10017

Nearby Locations:
Upper East Side
Yorkville | Manhattan Valley | Lenox Hill | Sutton Place | Carnegie Hill | East Harlem
10028 | 10025 | 10021| 10022 | 10029

Working Hours: (Union Square & Midtown)
Monday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Tuesday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Wednesday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Thursday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday:CLOSED
Sunday:CLOSED

Working Hours: (Upper East Side)
Monday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Tuesday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Wednesday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Thursday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: CLOSED

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