Double balloon enteroscopy for pediatric inflammatory bowel disease Pediatrics International, 05/15/2012

Uchida K et al. – The present study demonstrated that double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) is a safe and effective procedure in the case of limited number of pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

• A total of 106 DBE procedures in 67 patients were performed at Mie University Hospital from January 2008 to June 2011.
• Of these, 17 procedures in 12 children and adolescents with established or suspected Crohn's disease (CD) were included in this study.

• The mean age was 12.9 years old (range, 3–19 years).
• Patients 15 years old or younger had general anesthesia.
• The procedures included the oral approach (n=9), the anal approach (n=4), and the ileostomal approach (n=4).
• The mean procedure duration was 60 min.
• In all patients with established CD, it is very useful to select the medical or surgical modalities on therapeutic decision-making.
• The procedure tolerance was acceptable and recovery was uneventful in all cases. No serious complications were encountered in series.