The ability to diagnose and treat digestive system diseases using Gastrointestinal Wireless Capsule Endoscopy is considered to be one of the major advances in medical procedure. This new approach allows physician to do something new, which is to view the inner most portion of the small intestines and obtain the most detailed, accurate, and effective diagnosis in gastrointestinal medicine history. The steps involved are easy, convenient, and safe for the patient. Gastrointestinal Wireless Capsule Endoscopy has been used in many countries, such as USA, England, Germany, Italy, Israel, Hong Kong SAR, etc.

 

      The word "capsule" in the name does not refer to a medicine, but it's one of the most important equipment used in the procedure with the size of 11 mm high x 26 mm wide and a weight of 3.7 gram. In addition to the "capsule", the other major equipments are the Sensor Array and the Data Recorder. The Sensor Array receives the signal from the capsule and transmits the signal to the Data Recorder.

 

      The capsule will flash light 2 times per second while recording images of the digestive system and sending them to the receiver that is attached to the abdomen of the patient in 8 different locations. The signal is then transmitted to Data Recorder which is attached to the belt that the patient is wearing. The entire process takes about 6-8 hours. During this time, the patient can move around and work normally. The capsule will eventually come out with the stool and discarded. The capsule will not be reused.      All the recorded images are immediately analyzed in order to properly treat the patient accurately and promptly according based on the root cause of the problem.

 

 

     The major benefits for the patient is that once the "capsule" is swallowed, they can continue to do other activities as normal, with some caution such as should not bend forward too much, should not perspire too much, or should not stay near magnetic field because of possible interferance with the function of the "capsule" and the resulting diagnosis. In addition, after the patient swallows the "capsule" for 2 hours, they can start to eat easy to digest food (food in liquid form or some snack). For those patients who are very weak, this new procedure means they no longer have to endure the traditional method, which require swallowing the powdery "dye" and get an X-ray.

 

      The disadvantage of the traditional endoscopic exam is that it's unable to examine the entire length of the small intestine due to its long length and therefore, physician may not be able to see the major cause of the disease because the endoscope cannot go in that far.

 

      To be able to diagnose gastrointestinal disease by swallowing a "capsule" is considered to be a major breakthrough in worldwide standard in gastrointestinal field because it enables the physician to make extremely accurate and detailed readings in many dimensions. Since the "capsule" records and sends still digital photographs as well as digital video of the digestive system, it provides a lot of flexibility for the physician to view and edit the footage while analyzing it and even attach it in an E-mail.