[Surgical treatment of Crohn's disease. Indication and management in 20 patients].
METHODS
Sixty-seven patients with Crohn's disease underwent surgery in our department in the period 1989-1996. In this paper we evaluated only the first 20 patients. Ten were female and 10 male. There was single localization in 13 patients and multiple in 7. Surgery was limited to the macroscopically involved intestinal segment. Reconstruction of the intestinal tract has been carried out with a double layer polyglycolic acid end-to-end manual anastomosis.


RESULTS
We had no operative deaths and early morbidity. In the follow-up we observed 2 anastomotic recurrences respectively three and five years after the operation; none of them required surgical treatment. One patient of 20 had a colocutaneous fistula four months after operation because of the relapse of the disease at preanastomotic level.


CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained in our limited experience allow us to affirm that, when elective surgery is possible, the most reliable surgical behaviour is a limited resection of the diseased segment. Quality of life improved after surgery in all patients.
Contessini Avesani
E
E
Università degli Studi, Milan.
Vicentini
L
L
Carrara
A
A
Botti
F
F
Reduzzi
R
R
Dallera
P
P