Utility of Double Balloon Enteroscopy for the Diagnosis and Management of Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with an unpredictable clinical course and a high incidence of disease recurrence. It can involve any portion of the gastrointestinal tract, but most commonly is found in the distal small bowel and proximal colon. In 30% of patients, the disease is localized only to the small bowel in which case it may be difficult to diagnose. Double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) now enables direct visualization of most, if not the entire small bowel mucosa, and may facilitate the diagnosis of CD. It also allows for biopsies, which can help differentiate CD from other disorders of the small bowel and may be useful in the dilation of strictures. In this chapter, we discuss the use of DBE for the diagnosis and management of CD.