Lower surgery risk for Crohn's disease

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The risk of bowel surgery for Crohn's disease in children is lower than previously reported, a U.S. physician says.

Dr. Neil LeLeiko of Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., led a multicenter study of 854 children with Crohn's disease that indicates, he says, the risk of bowel surgery is significantly lower than reported in recent studies.

"We have identified older age at diagnosis and greater disease severity to be associated with an increased risk for bowel surgery, along with certain types of disease," LeLeiko says in a statement. "The findings, however, indicate that other studies suggest an almost two times greater incidence of surgery than what we found in our study."

The study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, indicated a common treatment that begins at diagnosis -- immunomodulator therapy -- did not alter the risk of surgery.

LeLeiko and colleagues examined the incidence of Crohn's-related surgery during a five-year period among Crohn's patients under 16 years of age enrolled in the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group Registry from 26 sites across the country.