Korean J Gastroenterol.  2009 Jan;53(1):29-35.

Clinical Efficacy of Nonsurgical Treatment of Crohn's Disease-related Intraabdominal Abscess

• Kim DH
• Cheon JH
• Moon CM
• Park JJ
• Han SY
• Kim ES
• Chung MJ
• Lee JH
• Jung MK
• Lee SH
• Son JW
• Kim TI
• Kim WH

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study was conducted to compare the clinical efficacy between surgical and nonsurgical treatments for patients with Crohn's disease-related intraabdominal abscess.
METHODS
A retrospective review of medical records was performed for patients admitted to a single institution due to Crohn's disease-related intraabdominal abscess from February, 1996 to February, 2008. Clinical outcomes were compared between surgical and nonsurgical groups in terms of treatment responses and recurrences.
RESULTS
A total of 47 episodes of intraabdominal abscesses in 43 patients (12.7%) were identified from 339 patients with Crohn's disease. Of these, initially, 18 cases (38.3%) underwent surgical treatment and 29 (61.7%) were treated medically (antibiotic treatments with or without percutaneous drainage). The overall treatment response rates of surgical and nonsurgical group were 100% versus 89.7% (p=0.11) and recurrence rates were 27.8% versus 30.8% (p=1.00). Three patients in nonsurgical group (10.3%) showed no response to therapy and ultimately received surgical drainages. The median length of hospitalization in nonsurgical group was shorter than in surgical group (12 and 29.5 days, respectively. p=0.02).
CONCLUSIONS
Nonsurgical treatment might be as effective as surgical treatment for the treatment of Crohn's disease-related intraabdominal abscess, especially considering shorter hospital stay.

Keyword

Crohn's disease; Inflammatory bowel disease; Abdominal abscess

MeSH Terms

Abdominal Abscess/diagnosis/surgery/*therapy
Adolescent
Adult
Crohn Disease/diagnosis/surgery/*therapy
Drainage
Female
Humans
Length of Stay
Male
Middle Aged
Predictive Value of Tests
Recurrence
Retrospective Studies
Severity of Illness Index