A comprehensive review of strictureplasty techniques in Crohn's disease: types, indications, comparisons, and safety.

INTRODUCTION: Crohn's disease is one of the chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract that is often complicated by stricture formation with resulting obstructive symptoms. The technical repertoire of strictureplasty procedures has increased over the years in an effort to manage the diverse presentations of this condition while limiting the need for bowel resection. In this comprehensive review, we describe, compare, categorize, and appraise the strengths and weaknesses of 15 unique strictureplasty techniques.

METHODS: To identify all unique strictureplasty procedures, a Medline search utilizing "Crohn's disease," "surgical therapy," "strictureplasty," "enteroenterostomy," "Heineke-Mikulicz," and "side-to-side isoperistaltic" strictureplasty as medical subject headings was completed. PubMed, Ovid, Embase, and Cochrane database searches were conducted. Relevant articles between 1980 to December 2010 were reviewed. We initially selected 58 articles, but only 18 introduced novel surgical procedures related to 15 types of strictureplasty in Crohn's disease.

RESULTS: We identified 15 types of strictureplasty techniques. These were categorized into three main groups. The revised nomenclature will facilitate the reader to understand the differences and utility of each technique. These groups include the Heineke-Mikulicz-like strictureplasties, the intermediate procedures, and the enteroenterostomies. Heineke-Mikulicz strictureplasty was the most frequently used technique.

CONCLUSION: Various techniques of strictureplasty have been reported in the published literature. Strictureplasty has been shown to be a safe and efficacious technique that is comparable to bowel resection for stricturing Crohn's disease. This technique spares bowel length and puts the Crohn's disease patient at a lower risk of developing short bowel syndrome with repeated resections.