Paper of the day - early colectomies aid IBD

06 Nov 07

Researchers compared mortality rates between 23, 464 IBD patients who either underwent elective colectomy, emergency colectomy, or who were hospitalised for IBD but had no colectomy

Mortality three years after elec-tive colectomy was 3.5% (on average for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease) compared to 11.8% for admission but no colectomy and 11.9 for emergency colectomy (p<0.001).

The study findings suggest that the threshold for elective colectomy for IBD in England is too high, say the authors.

30 October.