Images captured during a capsule endoscopy
place patients are asked to refrain from eating from 1pm the day before and can only drink clear soup, nonfizzy drinks and black tea.
Then at 5pm, 8pm and 6am on the day of the test, the patient is required to drink a litre of laxative which empties the bowel to allow for the clearest images possible.
Jeff said that while this was the biggest drawback to the examination, a capsule endoscopy is a far more beneficial procedure to both patients and the NHS alike.
Currently around 12 capsule endoscopies are being carried out at University Hospital Llandough each week, while the procedure is also being used at centres in the Royal Gwent Hospital and Neath Port Talbot.
Jeff added that before the capsule endoscopy started being carried out by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board around seven years ago, there was a significant section of the small bowel which couldn’t be captured.
Jeff added: “A gastroscopy test can capture the very top of the small bowel, and a colonoscopy test sometimes reaches the very bottom end of the small bowel.
“But there’s probably about seven or eight metres in between which we can’t very easily get to [without a capsule endoscopy].
“There are specialist camera tests which are done in places like Bristol, but again hey are very invasive tests.”
Intensive training is carried out before clinicians are able to carry out a capsule endoscopy and be able to use the software and analyse the footage.
“When we bring the patients back into the hospital we can show them what their bowel looks like.
“Some really like having a little look as it allows them to feel a bit more in control of the whole process.”
If patients have a narrowing of the bowel due to inflammation the camera can get stuck, but this only occurs in around one in 100 procedures and 13 in 100 with Crohn’s disease.
Jeff added: “It is important to remember that the capsule only gets stuck in areas where there is narrowing of the bowel and often diagnoses the problem causing the patient’s symptoms.
“It is also very rare that the test needs to be repeated.”
The clinicians also warn patients not to travel on public transport while wearing the capsule belt as it can be mistaken for a terrorist device.