"Video pill" may supplement standard endoscopy

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7309.358/b

BMJ 2001;323:358 ( 18 August )

News

"Video pill" may supplement standard endoscopy

Carl Kovac, Budapest
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

An Israeli firm has won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a tiny encapsulated video camera designed togive doctors close up views of patients' smallintestines.

The "camera-in-a-pill," developed and manufactured by Given Imaging, is designed to be swallowed. The M2A Swallowable ImagingCapsule uses wireless technology to beam back colour images ofthe lower intestine to a receiver worn on the patient'swaistband.

After being swallowed, the camera wends its way painlessly through the digestive tract and is excreted eight to 72 hourslater.

It was not designed to replace standard endoscopic examinations, Given Imaging said. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administrationhas stipulated that it must be used in conjunction with suchtests.

However, it may save many patients from having to have surgery as endoscopes often cannot snake all the way through the smallintestine and exploratory surgery is sometimes needed to reacha. . . [Full text of this article]