Decio S. Couto

Secondary lymphangiectasia of the small bowel: utility of double balloon enteroscopy for diagnosis and management.

Sporadic lymphangiectasias are commonly found throughout the small bowel and are considered to be normal. Not uncommonly, lymphangiectasias are pathologic and can lead to mid-gastrointestinal bleeding, abdominal pain and protein-losing enteropathy. Pathologic lymphangiectasias of the small bowel include primary lymphangiectasia, secondary lymphangiectasia and lymphaticovenous malformations. In this report we present three different cases of small bowel lymphangiectasia detected by double balloon enteroscopy. The patients were diagnosed with South American blastomycosis, tuberculosis and primary small bowel lymphangioma.

Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided common bile duct stone removal

Endoscopic ultrasonography has become an important diagnostic and therapeutic tool in endoscopy units. It has a great impact on biliary and pancreatic disease management and its application to retrograde cholangiopancreatography is appealing, although very challenging with current devices. In this article we describe our initial experience with this technique.