Is early limited surgery associated with a more benign disease course in Crohn’s disease?

AIM:To analyze the difference in disease course and need for surgery in patients with Crohn’s disease(CD).METHODS:Data of 506 patients with incident CD were analyzed(age at diagnosis:31.5±13.8 years).Both hospital and outpatient records were collected prospectively with a complete clinical follow-up and comprehensively reviewed in the population-based Veszprem province database,which includes incident CD patients diagnosed between January 1,1977 and December 31,2008.Follow-up data were collected until December 31,2009.All patients included had at least 1year of follow-up available.Patients with indeterminate colitis at diagnosis were excluded from the analysis.RESULTS:Overall,73 patients(14.4%)required resective surgery within 1 year of diagnosis.Steroid exposure and need for biological therapy were lower in patients with early limited surgery(P<0.001 and P=0.09).In addition,surgery rates during follow-up in patients with and without early surgery differed significantly after matching on propensity scores(P<0.001,HR=0.23).The need for reoperation was also lower in patients with early limited resective surgery(P=0.038,HR=0.42)in a Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression(P=0.04)analysis.However,this advantage was not observed after matching on propensity scores(PLogrank=0.656,PBreslow=0.498).CONCLUSION:Long-term surgery rates and overall exposure to steroids and biological agents were lower in patients with early limited resective surgery,but reoperation rates did not differ.