Patients with Crohn's disease have longer post-operative in-hospital stay than patients with colon cancer but no difference in complications' rate

Abstract

<div>BACKGROUND</div><p>Right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection are used to treat benign conditions like Crohn’s disease (CD) and malignant ones like colon cancer (CC).</p><div>AIM</div><p>To investigate differences in pre- and peri-operative factors and their impact on post-operative outcome in patients with CC and CD.</p><div>METHODS</div><p>This is a sub-group analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology’s prospective, multi-centre snapshot audit. Adult patients with CC and CD undergoing right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection were included. Primary outcome measure was 30-d post-operative complications. Secondary outcome measures were post-operative length of stay (LOS) at and readmission.</p><div>RESULTS</div><p>Three hundred and seventy-five patients with CD and 2,515 patients with CC were included. Patients with CD were younger (median = 37 years for CD and 71 years for CC (<i>P</i> < 0.01), had lower American Society of Anesthesiology score (ASA) grade (<i>P</i> < 0.01) and less comorbidity (<i>P</i> < 0.01), but were more likely to be current smokers (<i>P</i> < 0.01). Patients with CD were more frequently operated on by colorectal surgeons (<i>P</i> < 0.01) and frequently underwent ileocecal resection (<i>P</i> < 0.01) with higher rate of de-functioning/primary stoma construction (<i>P</i> < 0.01). Thirty-day post-operative mortality occurred exclusively in the CC group (66/2515, 2.3%). In multivariate analyses, the risk of post-operative complications was similar in the two groups (OR 0.80, 95%CI: 0.54-1.17; <i>P</i> = 0.25). Patients with CD had a significantly longer LOS (Geometric mean 0.87, 95%CI: 0.79-0.95; <i>P</i> < 0.01). There was no difference in re-admission rates. The audit did not collect data on post-operative enhanced recovery protocols that are implemented in the different participating centers.</p><div>CONCLUSION</div><p>Patients with CD were younger, with lower ASA grade, less comorbidity, operated on by experienced surgeons and underwent less radical resection but had a longer LOS than patients with CC although complications' rate was not different between the two groups.</p>