The traditional endoscopy - EDG is equipped with a long fiber optic cable, Doctor used to load/insert a long fiber optic cable into your mouth, thought the esophagus, to reach stomach, duodenum, small intestine and even the front area. For some of the patients, it’s still not comfortable after having the anesthetic. Like myself, my stomach was too sensitive to accept this optic cable, and kept throwing it out. Till now, I never succeeded this endoscopy examine of my stomach.
According to Dr. Lin (servicing on Division of Gastroenterology, Mackay Memorial Hospital said, The small intestine is twisting and turning fully in the abdominal cavity. Loading the optic cable into these fragile and turning intestines is only easy to hurt the intestines. This is not suitable to examine by EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy )- the transitional endoscopy.
Common reasons for doing Capsule Endoscopy include unexplained bleeding, unexplained iron deficiency, unexplained abdominal pain, search for polyps, ulcers and tumors of small intestine, and inflammatory bowel disease. Though capsule endoscopy can be used to diagnose problem, but unlike EGD or colonoscopy, it cannot treat pathology that may be discovered.
At this moment, 1.8Million people had been examined by Capsule endoscopy.
This size of Capsule endoscopy is with 11 mm(diameter) x 26 mm length only. The major brands are Pillcam, Olympus, and M2A .etc. It takes 8hrs for traveling your body and takes two pictures per second. The output of picture volume is around 50,000 pictures per one trip. All of these pictures were transferred by wirelessly to external receiver worn by the patient using one of appropriate frequency bands. It is designed for recycling at this moment, which means each examination must discard away immediately. At this moment, the price is still quite high, not friendly for the common citizen.
From the view of the construction, the key components are the Optical Dom, Lens, lens holder, LED dice, battery, and Antenna PCB. It seems not so expensive. But to build such a tiny size under water proof spec is the key to success.
Thanks for Dr. Lin from the Division of Gastroenterology, Mackay Memorial Hospital. For the original article, PLS refer http://www.mmh.org.tw/gi/patient_corner/capsule/capsule.htm.