Risk of Late Postoperative Recurrence of Crohn's Disease in Patients in Endoscopic Remission After Ileocecal Resection, Over 10 Years at Multiple Centers.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The risk of recurrence of Crohn's disease (CD) from 1 to 10 years after surgery despite initial endoscopic remission (late post-operative recurrence) is not clear.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective study, at 3 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) centers in France and Belgium, of all patients with CD (n = 86) undergoing an ileocecal resection with curative intent from 2006 through 2016 who did not have endoscopic evidence for recurrence (Rutgeerts score less than i2) at their baseline assessment. Postoperative recurrence after baseline endoscopy was defined as a composite endpoint of at least 1 of the following: clinical recurrence, IBD-related hospitalization, occurrence of bowel damage, need for endoscopic balloon dilatation of the anastomosis, and need to repeat the surgery. Risk of mucosal disease progression was studied as a secondary outcome.

RESULTS

The median time between surgery and baseline endoscopy was 7 months (IQR, 5.7-9.5 months); 40 patients (46.5%) received medical prophylaxis in this period. The median follow-up time was 3.5 years (IQR, 1.6-5.3 years). Thirty-five patients (40.7%) had a late post-operative recurrence of CD, with a median time to disease recurrence after baseline endoscopy of 14.2 months (IQR, 6.3-26.1 months). Recurrence status did not differ significantly between patients with Rutgeerts scores of i0 (20/55) or i1 (15/31) at baseline (P = .28) and was independent of medical prophylaxis (16/40 with prophylactic therapy vs 19/46 without prophylactic therapy; P = .90). Mucosal disease progressed in 29 of the 71 patients (40.8%) with available data. We did not identify risk factors for late post-operative recurrence of CD or mucosal disease progression.

CONCLUSIONS

Among patients with CD treated by ileocecal resection, 40% of patients had a late recurrence, despite initial endoscopic remission, after a median follow-up time of 3.5 years. Tight monitoring of these patients is recommended beyond 18 months.