Enteroscopy Stiffening Device for Retrograde Balloon Assisted Enteroscopy

Balloon assisted enteroscopy has revolutionized the management of small bowel diseases by enabling endoscopic access deep into the small bowel. Using a combination of antegrade (through the mouth) and retrograde (through the anus) approaches, a large portion of the small bowel can be examined. Access to the proximal small bowel through the pylorus using the antegrade approach is straightforward but intubating the distal small bowel through the ileocecal valve is challenging due to the flexibility of the enteroscope. Recently, an enteroscopy stiffening wire has been developed. The purpose of our double blind placebo controlled randomized cross over study is to evaluate the performance of the enteroscopy stiffening wire in achieving terminal ileum intubation (TI) during retrograde balloon assisted enteroscopy.