Terashi S, Ozaka S, Kagoshima Y, Shimomori Y, Takahashi H, Minezaki D, Tsutsumi K, Fukuda M, Hirashita Y, Fukuda K, Ogawa R, Kodama M, Murakami K, Mizukami K. Bowel preparation for small bowel capsule endoscopy in patients with suspected or established Crohn’s disease. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2026; 18(2): 113762 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i2.113762]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sotaro Ozaka, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, 1-1 Idaigaoka, Hasama, Yufu 879-5593, Japan. ozakaso@oita-u.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Feb 16, 2026 (publication date) through Feb 4, 2026
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Journal Information of This Article
Publication Name
World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
ISSN
1948-5190
Publisher of This Article
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Terashi S, Ozaka S, Kagoshima Y, Shimomori Y, Takahashi H, Minezaki D, Tsutsumi K, Fukuda M, Hirashita Y, Fukuda K, Ogawa R, Kodama M, Murakami K, Mizukami K. Bowel preparation for small bowel capsule endoscopy in patients with suspected or established Crohn’s disease. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2026; 18(2): 113762 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i2.113762]
Shohei Terashi, Sotaro Ozaka, Yomei Kagoshima, Yuta Shimomori, Haruhiko Takahashi, Daisuke Minezaki, Koshiro Tsutsumi, Masahide Fukuda, Yuka Hirashita, Kensuke Fukuda, Ryo Ogawa, Masaaki Kodama, Kazunari Murakami, Kazuhiro Mizukami, Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, Yufu 879-5593, Japan
Sotaro Ozaka, Yomei Kagoshima, Department of Infectious Disease Control, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, Yufu 879-5593, Japan
Co-corresponding authors: Sotaro Ozaka and Kazuhiro Mizukami.
Author contributions: Ozaka S and Mizukami K contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-corresponding authors. Terashi S and Ozaka S developed the study design and wrote the manuscript; Shimomori Y, Kagoshima Y, Takahashi H, Minezaki D, Tsutsumi K, Fukuda M, Hirashita Y, Fukuda K, and Ogawa R performed the small-bowel capsule endoscopy and acquired the data; Ozaka S and Mizukami K reviewed and corrected the manuscript; Murakami K, Kodama M, and Ozaka S provided oversight for the manuscript and revised it for important intellectual content; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by Takeda Science Foundation, No. 2025045981.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Oita University Faculty of Medicine, No. 3144.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from each patient before small-bowel capsule endoscopy examination. The authors declare that the study consisted of a retrospective assessment and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sotaro Ozaka, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, 1-1 Idaigaoka, Hasama, Yufu 879-5593, Japan. ozakaso@oita-u.ac.jp
Received: September 3, 2025 Revised: September 27, 2025 Accepted: December 10, 2025 Published online: February 16, 2026 Processing time: 154 Days and 20.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Although small-bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) is an important tool in the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease (CD), the necessity and consensus protocol of preprocedural bowel pre-treatment for SBCE in patients with CD have not yet been established.
AIM
To evaluate the diagnostic performance and mucosal visibility of SBCE with and without bowel preparation in patients with CD.
METHODS
Patients with suspected or established CD who underwent SBCE at our hospital between January 2015 and March 2025 were included in this retrospective observational study. SBCE was performed after bowel preparation with fasting only or with 1 L of polyethylene glycol solution with liquid simethicone. The primary outcome was the lesion detection rate. Secondary outcomes were the completion rate of the examination, image quality, gastric transit time, small bowel transit time, and adverse events related to SBCE.
RESULTS
Fifty-seven patients were included in the study. The detection rates of lesions were 95.6% in the non-preparation group and 96.6% in the preparation group, with no significant differences between the two groups. The two groups showed no significant differences in completion rates, gastric transit time, small bowel transit time, or visibility score. One patient in the preparation group experienced intestinal obstruction.
CONCLUSION
The diagnostic performance and mucosal visibility of SBCE for CD were not significantly improved by pre-procedural bowel preparation.
Core Tip: Small-bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) is an important tool in the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease (CD). The necessity and consensus protocol of preprocedural bowel pre-treatment for SBCE in patients with CD have not been established. This study aimed to describe the contribution of preprocedural bowel preparation in SBCE for patients with CD with small intestinal lesions by comparing the diagnostic performance and mucosal visibility. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because it showed that the diagnostic performance and mucosal visibility of small-bowel capsule endoscopy for CD were not significantly improved by pre-procedural bowel preparation.
