title: Roles of double-balloon endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn's disease: a multicenter experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) examinations are not yet widely accepted as routine procedures for examining the small bowel of patients with Crohn's disease (CD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of DBE for CD in tertiary-care hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between July 2004 and September 2008, 1444 DBE procedures were performed for 704 patients in 6 tertiary-care hospitals. Patient profile, indication, diagnosis and treatment of DBE were evaluated using a multicenter database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  DBE examinations were most frequently performed in 75 patients with CD, corresponding to 10.5% of all the patients examined by DBE. Fifty patients were diagnosed with CD before DBE, while DBE was performed for the diagnosis of 25 new CD patients. Small bowel lesions were often detected even when the terminal ileum was not involved. In the 75 patients, 21 patients were asymptomatic at the time of DBE examinations. Active inflammatory lesions were detected in 51.2% of the CD patients, and were even detected in 33.3% of the asymptomatic CD patients. The treatment was altered in 53.3% of the CD patients after the DBE evaluation. No severe complications were experienced.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DBE procedures can be safely performed in patients with CD and should be considered for the precise evaluation of and to determine the treatment strategy for CD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 K1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Jumpei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iijima
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Komori
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hiyama
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakama
authors.forename: Kouhei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tominaga
authors.forename: Mitsuhiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Kunio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yoshihisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwanaga
authors.forename: Ryoichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ebara
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Shusaku
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsutsui
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsujii
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hayashi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002404:Catheterization; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D016208:Databases, Factual; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult