A double baloon colonoscopy allows more areas of the body to be scanned without surgery.
The double balloon colonoscopy allows doctors to use technology to examine more areas inside the body without needing to do surgery. The procedure is used for conditions such as gastrointestinal bleeding, foreign body removal and polyposis syndrome.
Colonoscopy vs.Double Balloon Colonoscopy
A traditional colonoscopy uses a colonscope with a "long, thin, flexible tube with a miniature video camera and light at its end," but can only reach select parts of the colon, which is the last part of the gastrointestinal tract, according to the double balloon technology uses an endoscope
Specifications
The double balloon technology "allows physicians to perform both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures within the small bowel without open surgery," according to the California Pacific Medical Center. Doctors use an endoscope with a balloon "attached to the distal end of the scope and the other attached to a transparent tube sliding over the endoscope," according to CPMC.
The procedure
The double balloon endoscope allows doctors to reexamine the 25 feet of small intestine. When inflated the balloons can "grip sections of the small intestine and 'shorten' the small intestine by pleating it over the endoscope," according to the CDMC. Doing this repeatedly allows the endoscope to move through and examine the entire small intestine.
Development
The double balloon technology was introduced by Japanese based-Fujion Inc. and approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 2004.
Tags: double balloon, small intestine, balloon technology, double balloon technology, allows doctors
