Risk of Late Postoperative Recurrence of Crohn's Disease in Patients in Endoscopic Remission After Ileocecal Resection, Over 10 Years at Multiple Centers.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The risk of recurrence of Crohn's disease (CD) from 1 to 10 years after surgery despite initial endoscopic remission (late post-operative recurrence) is not clear. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, at 3 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) centers in France and Belgium, of all patients with CD (n = 86) undergoing an ileocecal resection with curative intent from 2006 through 2016 who did not have endoscopic evidence for recurrence (Rutgeerts score less than i2) at their baseline assessment. Post-operative recurrence after baseline endoscopy was defined as a composite endpoint of at least 1 of the following: clinical recurrence, IBD-related hospitalization, occurrence of bowel damage, need for endoscopic balloon dilatation of the anastomosis, and need to repeat the surgery. Risk of mucosal disease progression was studied as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: The median time between surgery and baseline endoscopy was 7 months (IQR, 5.7-9.5 months); 40 patients (46.5%) received medical prophylaxis in this period. The median follow-up time was 3.5 years (IQR, 1.6-5.3 years). Thirty-five patients (40.7%) had a late post-operative recurrence of CD, with a median time to disease recurrence after baseline endoscopy of 14.2 months (IQR, 6.3-26.1 months). Recurrence status did not differ significantly between patients with Rutgeerts scores of i0 (20/55) or i1 (15/31) at baseline (P = .28) and was independent of medical prophylaxis (16/40 with prophylactic therapy vs 19/46 without prophylactic therapy; P = .90). Mucosal disease progressed in 29 of the 71 patients (40.8%) with available data. We did not identify risk factors for late post-operative recurrence of CD or mucosal disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with CD treated by ileocecal resection, 40% of patients had a late recurrence, despite initial endoscopic remission, after a median follow-up time of 3.5 years. Tight monitoring of these patients is recommended beyond 18 months.