HemoPill® acute shows promising results in a non-fasting patient with a mid-gastrointestinal bleeding: a case report

Ovesco’s first wireless sensor capsule for detection of upper and middle gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding was successfully used in a patient with a bleeding caused by Meckel’s diverticulum and no patient preparation.

D. Wiedbrauck, S. Hollerbach and F. Wiedbrauck, AKH Celle, Germany reported on their experience with HemoPill acute to clarify an acute bleeding situation in a patient who had undergone EGD, colonoscopy and CT-angiography, which did not reveal the source of bleeding.

The cause of anaemia (hemoglobin 9.9 g/dL) and episodes of severe haematochezia were investigated in a 52-year-old male patient but could not be determined with the above procedures. Afterwards, the patient was stable and had eaten.

A few hours after the procedure, his hemoglobin level dropped severely to 6.4 g/dL and due to the food intake, a Video Capsule Enodoscopy (VCE) could no longer be performed. Thus, they decided to use the HemoPill acute which detected blood after 6 h 58 min. Over time, it could be assumed that the bleeding would have to be in the ileum/terminal ileum. Afterwards, a VCE exposed a bleeding Meckel’s diverticulum, and the patient underwent a segmental ileal partition.

The authors concluded that the HemoPill acute might serve as add-on pre-diagnostic tool to detect and localize bleedings in the upper and middle GI tract in non-fasting patients.

Detection of mid-gastrointestinal bleeding caused by Meckel’s diverticulum using a novel elemetric sensor capsule in a non-fasting patient
Wiedbrauck D, Hollerbach S, Wiedbrauck F
Digestive Endoscopy (published online) https://doi.org/10.1111/den.14005