Endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease

Small bowel imaging and endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) underwent a lot of change and advancement in the recent years. Modalities have shifted from gastroscopy, colonoscopy and small bowel follow through, to ileo-colonoscopy, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR), enteroscopy, wireless video capsule endoscopy and balloon assisted enteroscopy. Nowadays endoscopy has a major role in the diagnosis of IBD, assessing its extent, treating some of its complications (stricture, bleeding), assessing the success of various treatments (mucosal healing), and as a predictor of disease course. Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a relatively new "toy" allowing direct, patient friendly, visualization of the entire small bowel mucosa. It has gained a substantial role in the evaluation of patients with suspected Chron's Disease (CD) and indeterminate colitis. WCE has a high positive predictive value in patients with suspected CD, when one uses more than two of the International Conference on Capsule Endoscopy (ICCE) criteria, and not less important, a very high negative predictive value in patients with suspected CD. Its role in patients with known CD, assessing their disease activity and extent, its role in assessing post-surgical small bowel recurrence and its role in the evaluation of mucosal healing are still unclear. Balloon assisted enteroscopy has established its role as a complementary tool in cases where there is need of biopsies or treatment (dilatation of strictures). The present review will summarize the role of endoscopy in the diagnosis of IBD, in assessing its activity, its management, interventional endoscopy and cancer surveillance.