Enteroscopy

Ever since I began focusing my work on the Digestive System, I have always been particularly interested in that most distant organ of the body, the small intestine. In the 80s, little known about it.

Our first book was born in the Endoscopy Unit of the Navy Hospital (Ferrol, Galicia), "Enteroscopy" (Ed. Aran, 19971 and subsequently the "Manual of Oral Enteroscopy" (Ed. Entheos, 20021, which was presented at the SEPD meeting (Spanish Society of Digestive Pathology) in San Sebastian. Both were about the push enteroscopy technique.

With the introduction of capsule endoscopy and its "fantastic voyage", we released another book, "Capsule Endoscopy" (Ed. Entheos, 2004) and finally, in 2007, already as part of the Small Bowel Unit of Hospital Morales Meseguer of Murcia, which was created by Professor Fernando Carballo Álvarez, the book "Double-Balloon Enteroscopy" (Ed. Entheos, 2007) was published. In that year, we were honored by Professor Yamamoto, inventor of the DBE technique, performing the first DBE exploration in our Hospital and broadcast live in our country.

Now back to the present perspective of the past, but Looking to the future, our latest book "Enteroscopy" (Sulime, 2014) is intended as a comprehensive review of flexible enteroscopy techniques, with an abundant iconographic contribution.

Sometimes, it's good to pause for a moment to see what we are doing and to assess the effort involved both in terms of technological innovation and well-designed studies and the scientific evidence provided. All this together left as a "sediment" in the wake of years of experience.

This new book is a rigorous, thorough and methodical work, and only possible through the dedication of our three co-authors, and the collaboration of the members of our Endoscopy Unit and other hospitals in Spain, with special mention also to the other hospitals in India and Costa Rica.

I believe that the Sulime Editorial (Seville, Spain) has done a great job.

This book is dedicated first to the physicians who have trained with us (Rosa, Eli, Mari), to those who are currently training (Paloma, Quique, Blanca) and also the Digestive Unit Residents and Specialists who have chosen us to complete their training; thank you very much to all of you for placing your trust in us.

I also wish to thank ST Endoscopy (Fuji Film, Spain) for its collaboration and support in printing, are for many years of friendship.

The people who have inspired the author because of their deep scientific career in this area, Prof. Hironori Yamamoto (Tokyo, Japan), Prof. Marco Pennazio (Turin, Italy), Christian Ell and Andrea May (Wiesbaden, Germany) and Juan Manuel Herrerías from Seville (Spain), who introduced capsule endoscopy in our country.

The people who have helped me during this "journey in the wilderness" of nearly two years, the members of my Unit, who are authors of many chapters, and my family, my wife Ángela and our son Quique (both residents, in the same year, at my Hospital, who are often on duty together) and also our other sons Alba and Alexander and my daughter Ángela.

Enrique Pérez-Cuadrado Martínez
Digestive Unit, Morales Meseguer University Hospital, Murcia.