Both single balloon enteroscopy and double balloon enteroscopy are safe and effective ways for your provider to view your intestine. Both procedures use a thin enteroscope within an overtube. The main difference between the two is in how the scope reaches your bowel.

Double-balloon enteroscopy, also known as push-and-pull enteroscopy, is an endoscopic technique for visualization of the small bowel. It was developed by Hironori Yamamoto in 2001. [1]

A double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) is a procedure that allows for extensive examination and endoscopic treatment of abnormalities found in the small intestine, also called the small bowel, located between the stomach and colon (large intestine).

Sometimes called push-and-pull enteroscopy or balloon-assisted enteroscopy, double balloon enteroscopy is a nonsurgical procedure that finds and treats problems deep inside the small bowel. It uses a flexible tube with a camera (an endoscope) that is placed inside a wider tube.

There are two types of balloon endoscopy: single balloon and double balloon. For single balloon endoscopy, a 200 cm long flexible, fiberoptic, endoscope (a hose-like tube one centimeter in diameter with a light and a camera on the tip) is fitted with an equally long overtube that slides the full length of the endoscope.

With a double balloon enteroscopy, a doctor uses a long, flexible tube called a scope with a camera and a light to look at your small intestine. During balloon-assisted enteroscopy, the doctor can inflate and deflate small balloons attached to the scope.

Another difference is the way the tool advances through your small intestine: Double balloon: With a double balloon enteroscopy, the endoscope is equipped with two tiny balloons. The balloons inflate and deflate alternately to advance the tool. It’s also called a push-and-pull enteroscopy.

Learn about what to expect seven days, five days and one day before and one the day of the double ballon enteroscopy procedure.

The double balloon enteroscopy is an important method for the endoscopic approach of the small bowel that provides diagnosis and therapy of this segment’s disorders, with low complication rate. Aim: Analysis of patients undergoing double balloon enteroscopy.

A double balloon endoscopy (DBE) is a fairly new type of endoscopy which is used to look into the small bowel (intestine). It was developed in 2001 in Japan and is now widely used in assisting with diagnosis and monitoring of Crohn’s disease (a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)).