title: Push-and-pull enteroscopy using the double-balloon technique/double-balloon enteroscopy.
abstract: Push-and-Pull enteroscopy/Double balloon enteroscopy (PPE/DBE) allows enteroscopy of the entire small bowel, or at least a substantial part of it. The complication rate is acceptably low. Severe complications such as pancreatitis and perforation were encountered in the literature in approximately 1% of all diagnostic PPE/DBEs. It can be expected that the complication rate of therapeutic PPE/DBEs is higher, comparable with the conventional endoscopy. The diagnostic yield is high, at approximately 75%, as is the therapeutic yield. The option of carrying out endoscopic therapy (in approximately 40%-50% of cases in the Western hemisphere) is an important aspect. Angiodysplasias are the main bleeding source, at least in Western countries. Using the PPE/DBE device, endoscopic treatments such as endoscopic hemostasis using injection and argon plasma coagulation, polypectomy, endoscopic resection, balloon dilation, and foreign-body extraction have become feasible even in the small intestine and can generally be performed safely and without relevant technical problems. Medical therapy can be started in up to 20% of cases-e.g., after a new or changed diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Surgical therapy is required in 10-20% of cases, due to malignant tumors or complex stenoses, for example. The main indication is mid-gastrointestinal bleeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine II, HSK, Klinikum Wiesbaden, Ludwig Erhardt Strasse 100, 65199 Wiesbaden, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ell
mesh_terms: D053704:Capsule Endoscopy; D020776:Endoscopes, Gastrointestinal; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological