Small Bowel Obstruction and Capsule Retention by a Small Bowel Ulcer That Was Not Found on Capsule Endoscopy

Capsule endoscopy (CE) is a valuable modality for directly examining the small bowel in a relatively noninvasive and safe manner. CE is being increasingly used for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, Crohn's disease, drug induced ulcer and small bowel tumor. Although capsule retention is a relatively infrequent complication, small bowel obstruction and strictures have been considered contraindications to CE. But some authors have reported that capsule endoscopy can be safely used to help identify the etiology and site of small bowel obstruction, and the retention of the capsule indicates the presence of a lesion requiring surgery. We report here on a case of small bowel obstruction and capsule retention by a small bowel ulcer, and the small bowel ulcer was not found when performing capsule endoscopy.