What are the symptoms and signs of small bowel bleeding

Condition analysis:
Bleeding from the small bowel may be slow or fast. When the bleeding is slow, it may cause anemia (a low blood count). When the bleeding is slow it may not be visible in the stool. Anemia may cause symptoms such as tiredness and shortness of breath, but many people have no symptoms. If the bleeding is fast it is called a hemorrhage. People with hemorrhage may notice blood when they move their bowels, or their bowel movements may be black and tarry.

Instructions:
Diagnosing Bleeding in the Small Bowel: To diagnose small bowel bleeding, we start with a comprehensive examination and obtain a thorough history. A blood test and checking the stool for blood are common.

After ruling out a bleeding source from the stomach or colon, a capsule endoscopy is the recommend diagnostic exam for the small bowel. Capsule endoscopy is a study that allows us to see all the way through the small bowel and find things we wouldn’t be able to see any other way. The procedure involves swallowing a small capsule, which is the size of a large vitamin pill. Inside the capsule is a tiny wireless camera that takes more than 50,000 digital pictures as it passes through the small intestine. Images are transmitted to a recording device worn on a belt around your waist. This recording device saves the pictures for a specialist to look at and interpret at a later time. Our doctors have performed over 3,500 capsule endoscopies.