Small bowel resection rates in Crohn's disease and the indication for surgery over time: experience from a large tertiary care center.

BACKGROUND: Our primary aim was to determine if the rate of small bowel resection (SBR) has declined over time among Crohn's disease (CD) patients seen at a single academic institution. A secondary aim was to establish whether the indication for surgery has changed.

METHODS: Patients with a primary or secondary ICD-9 code for CD (555.0-555.9) who underwent SBR at the University of Pittsburgh were included. Patients were divided into 4 separate time periods based on when they had surgery: 1995-1998 (Period 1), 1999-2001 (Period 2), 2002-2004 (Period 3), and 2005-2007 (Period 4). Medical records were reviewed for the 6 months preceding surgery. Use of 5-ASAs, immunomodulators (IMs), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists, and corticosteroids were noted. Disease behavior was defined as nonstricturing, nonpenetrating (B1), stricturing (B2), and penetrating (B3). Proportions of patients undergoing SBR were calculated according to calendar cohort and these rates were examined for time trends.

RESULTS: In all, 227 unique patients were analyzed for a total of 236 surgeries. The rates of 5-ASA, IM, and corticosteroid use were similar across the 4 time periods. By contrast, TNF antagonist usage progressively increased over time (0%, 18%, 34%, 35%; P = 0.0002). The annual rate of SBR per period did not change (1.6%, 1.9%, 1.6%, 1.9%; P = 0.93). Similarly, the disease behavior did not change over time.

CONCLUSIONS: While the frequency of TNF antagonist use in CD at the University of Pittsburgh has increased over time, the rate of SBR and indication for surgery has remained unchanged. These findings may be explained by long-standing, complicated disease refractory to medical therapy.