Prevention of Endoscopic Postoperative Recurrence in Crohn’s Disease

Resumen

Surgery still has an important role in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, and more than 70% of patients will require surgery at some time in their disease course, even with the best therapeutic options. Unfortunately, these patients have an increased risk of future reoperations in the long term (8-10 years). Recurrence is a common event after surgery and occurs in up to 90% of patients after one year. The natural history of postoperative recurrence of Crohn’s disease demonstrates that endoscopic recurrence precedes clinical symptoms and bowel damage that can lead to future reoperations. Several risk factors are associated with recurrence of Crohn’s disease, mainly smoking, perforating disease, and previous resections. The different strategies of prevention of endoscopic postoperative recurrence lead to better disease control after surgery. In this review the authors describe the risk factors associated with recurrence and debate the therapeutic options for prevention of postoperative endoscopic recurrence.