Press releases

Yale-New Haven Hospital news release
Release date: September 20, 2005
Media contact: Mark D'Antonio, (203) 688-2493

PillCam is an easy procedure to swallow at Yale-New Haven Hospital

It's the size of a large vitamin capsule, but what some patients are swallowing in Yale-New Haven Hospital's gastrointestinal (GI) procedures center is far more remarkable than a standard multivitamin. This capsule is called PillCam, and it contains a tiny video camera that transmits full-color image data of the digestive tract at a rate of two frames per second to an array of sensors in a special belt worn by the patient.

While Yale-New Haven Hospital doctors are using PillCam to study the small intestine - often in cases that are difficult to diagnose - they say the technology is revolutionary, and may be used in other ways in the future.

"PillCam is very cool, it's just cool technology," said Deborah D. Proctor, MD, one of two physicians that perform the procedure at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The other is Martin Floch, MD "The procedure is totally non-invasive, no radiation is involved, there is no discomfort and no need for sedation. Once the camera and belt are in place, the patient can go about his or her normal day."

PillCam was developed by Given Imaging, an Israeli company, and doctors worldwide have used it to help diagnose more than 200,000 patients. The tiny camera is a valuable tool for diagnosing problems of the small bowel, including chronic undiagnosed intestinal bleeding, Crohn's Disease, Celiac disease, benign and malignant tumors of the small intestine, vascular disorders and medication-related small bowel injury. Other tools, such as endoscopy and X-ray, fall short in diagnosing these problems because thin, flexible endoscopic tubes don't reach far enough into the small intestine and X-rays don't provide a clear enough picture of it.

At Yale-New Haven Hospital, Drs. Floch and Proctor use PillCam to diagnose about three or four patients a week - about 125 in the past year. "Generally they tend to be older patients, although occasionally there are younger ones," said Dr. Proctor. "They might come to us after six months to a year of anemia or GI bleeding, and they've had upper endoscopies and other procedures."

PillCam looks big, but it goes down easy, although children may need anesthesia, and it is not used on patients with swallowing disorders, pacemakers or gastrointestinal obstructions. Patients are given the capsule while they are lying down, then they gradually begin to sit up as PillCam begins its journey through the esophagus. Then they go about their normal day, even eating a light lunch while PillCam does its work. The patient returns to the GI procedures center eight hours later so the physician can upload information from the special belt and view it at a hospital computer workstation as either still images or a movie. The pill is excreted naturally.

One PillCam capsule costs about $500, bringing an entire procedure using Pillcam to $1,200 compared to $700-$800 for an endoscopy, said Proctor. But she and Dr. Floch expect the price to come down as the use of PillCam becomes more widespread.

Reporters: For more information on this release, contact Mark D'Antonio, (203) 688-2493.

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Last revised: September 19, 2005 (mv)

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