A 74-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of repeated gastrointestinal bleeding. In spite of several examinations including upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, small bowel series, angiography, and red blood cell scintigraphy, the origin of the bleeding has not been detected. The finding of first capsule endoscopy (CE) showed the vascular spider on the ileum, which was suggestive of the origin of bleeding. Double balloon endoscopy (DBE) was performed via anterograde route and India ink was injected into the submucosal layer (endoscopic tattooing) at the terminal point of the examination. Next, it was performed via retrograde route to the tattooing site. However, origin of the bleeding could not be detected. Her bleeding was stopped spontaneously and she was discharged. Two months later, gastrointestinal bleeding was recurred. Second CE was performed and the active bleeding was recorded at the anal side from the tattooing site. Based on this finding, the second DBE was performed via retrograde route. Pulsating bleeding was observed on the distal ileum about 40cm from the terminal ileum, suggesting the hemorrhagic vascular ectasia. Hemostasis was successfully done with the combination of local hyper-saline-epinephrine injection and coagula-tion therapy with hot-biopsy forceps. She has never experienced re-bleeding for two years since then. In conclusion, the combination of CE and DBE was very useful for detecting the origin of repeated obscure intestinal bleeding. Moreover, endoscopic tattooing during the first DBE is easily detected by CE and also the decisive marker to judge which route of insertion is optimal for therapeutic approach of small intestinal bleeding in this case such as we encountered.
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