Mahmoud Amarna

Late presentation of capsule endoscope aspiration with successful extraction by flexible bronchoscopy utilizing a snare wire loop

Capsule endoscopy is a commonly employed technique to examine patients for gastrointestinal pathology. Pulmonary aspiration of a capsule endoscope is a rare complication of this procedure. There have been 15 well-described instances of bronchial aspiration of a capsule endoscope [1–15]. Patients who aspirate this device are generally elderly and may have risk factors for aspiration. Aspiration should be suspected if cough occurs when the patient is swallowing the capsule. Aspiration can be confirmed by chest radiography or by immediate downloading of the recorded images. Fortunately, most patients are able to cough up the capsule endoscope and swallow it without intervention and do so in a short time frame. However, an invasive intervention may be required to remove the aspirated capsule from the bronchial tree. The technique employed to retrieve the device depends on the expertise of the local physicians and equipTable 1 Demographic and clinical data of the patients with well-documented aspiration of a capsule endoscope.