Since its introduction into clinical practice in 2000,
capsule endoscopy (CE) has become an important procedure for many pathologies of small bowel (SB) diseases, including
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Currently, the most commonly used
capsule procedures are small bowel
capsule endoscopy (SBCE), colon CE (CCE), and the recently developed pan-enteric CE that evaluates the SB and colon in patients with
Crohn's disease (CD). SBCE has a higher diagnostic performance compared to other radiological and conventional endoscopic modalities in patients with suspected CD. Additionally, CE plays an important role in monitoring the activity of CD in SB. It can also be used in evaluating response to anti-inflammatory treatment and detecting recurrence in postsurgical patients with CD who underwent bowel resection. Due to its increasing use, different scoring systems have been developed specifically for IBD. The main target with CCE is
ulcerative colitis (UC). The second-generation colon
capsule has shown high performance for the assessment of
inflammation in patients with UC. CCE allows noninvasive evaluation of mucosal
inflammation with a reduced volume of preparation for patients with UC.