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Background More than 80% of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) require surgical intervention during their lifetime. High rates of disease recurrence often necessitate repeat surgery. Recurrence is typically observed at or immediately proximal to the anastomosis, raising the question of whether surgical techniques have the potential to decrease recurrence rates. In addition, the mesentery has recently been implicated in the pathophysiology of CD, and several techniques have been developed to reduce its influence on recurrence. We aimed to describe the short-term safety and feasibility of these approaches. Methods This is a comparative retrospective single-center cohort study of consecutive CD patients undergoing primary or redo ileocolic resection with mesenteric excision and exclusion (MEE), extended mesenteric excision (EME) only, or Kono-S anastomosis (KSA) only from 2015-2022. Patients undergoing both EME plus KSA were considered to have MEE. Patients' characteristics, perioperative data, and short-to-midterm outcomes were collected. Univariate analysis was performed. Results A total of 186 patients underwent MEE (n=46), EME (n=66), or KSA (n=74). All three groups had comparable (p>0.05) risk factors in terms of mean age at diagnosis and surgery (25.4 and 37.5 years old, respectively), preoperative biologics (63.4%) and corticosteroids (22.6%), smoking, and associated perianal disease. However, the MEE group had more penetrating disease compared to the other groups (MEE 50.0% vs. EME 34.8% vs. KSA 20.4%; p0.05) in rates of emergency surgery (4.8%), ileostomy creation (14%), and laparoscopy (64.5%) Table 1. Estimated blood loss and length of stay were also comparable between groups (p>0.05). Operative time in the MEE group was longer (median: 187, range: 67-360 minutes) compared to the other two groups (KSA: 170 (56-487); EME: 152 (63-436, p0.05) Table 2. Conclusion Targeting the mesentery with novel surgical approaches to ileocolic Crohn's disease was observed to be safe and feasible on short-term follow-up. Long-term follow-up is needed to assess the impact of these techniques on post-operative anastomotic disease recurrence.

The aim of this study was to determine preoperative clinical factors associated with subsequent diagnosis revision to Crohn's disease (CD) following total proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis (UC) or indeterminate colitis (IC) patients.Presumed UC and IC patients undergoing IPAA from a large single-institution prospective database with change of diagnosis to CD were identified and compared with patients without diagnosis change.A total of 2814 patients (47% male, median age 37 years) with presumed UC (85%) or IC (15%) underwent primary IPAA. At a median follow up of 9.6 years, 184 (7%) had the diagnosis revised to CD from histopathological examination of the colectomy specimen immediately in 97 (53%) or at a median interval of 36 months in 87 (47%). CD and UC/IC patients had had a similar operative technique, length of stay and 30-day morbidity. The postoperative CD diagnosis was associated with a preoperative diagnosis of IC (P0.0001) and perianal fistula (P = 0.002). Patients with a delayed diagnosis of CD were associated with a 3-stage procedure (P0.0001, OR = 2.8) (95% CI = 1.8-4.4), colonic stricture (P = 0.04, OR = 2.9 [95% CI = 1.1-7.4]), perianal fistula (P = 0.02, OR = 2.9 [95% CI = 1.2-7.2]), oral ulceration (P = 0.009, OR = 3.8 [95% CI = 1.2-9.6]) and younger age (P0.0001, OR = 0.048 [95% CI = 0.011-0.19]).A few patients having IPAA for presumed UC/IC were subsequently diagnosed to have CD which was associated with perianal fistula and the diagnosis of postoperative preoperative IC. The delayed diagnosis of CD was associated with a three-stage procedure, colorectal stricture, anal fissure, mouth ulceration and younger age.

Recent studies have suggested that mercaptopurine metabolism is influenced by drug formulation (mercaptopurine vs. azathioprine) and concomitant use of 5-aminosalicylic acid medications.To determine the influence of dose, formulation and 5-aminosalicylic acid use on mercaptopurine metabolism.Metabolites from 131 inflammatory bowel disease patients were analysed. Logistic regression was used to analyse correlations between dose and metabolite levels. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the effects of drug formulation and 5-aminosalicylic acid use.A positive correlation was detected between dose and 6-tioguanine nucleotides levels for azathioprine/Imuran formulation (P = 0.005) but not for mercaptopurine formulation. Adjusted mean 6-tioguanine nucleotides levels were similar for both formulations. Adjusted mean 6-methylmercaptopurine levels were higher for mercaptopurine formulation than for azathioprine formulation (1950 vs. 1056, P = 0.04). 5-Aminosalicylic acid use: 6-tioguanine nucleotides levels did not differ based on concomitant 5-aminosalicylic acid use. However, 5-aminosalicylic acid use did result in higher adjusted mean 6-methylmercaptopurine levels: 2078 on 5-aminosalicylic acid vs. 991 off 5-aminosalicylic acid (P = 0.004).(i) Azathioprine may have metabolic benefits by achieving a correlation of dose with 6-tioguanine nucleotides levels and by leading to lower mean 6-methylmercaptopurine levels. (ii) 5-aminosalicylic acid use does not significantly impact 6-tioguanine levels and may lead to higher 6-methylmercaptopurine levels.

Functional abdominal pain, including the irritable bowel syndrome, is more common in females. Our aim was to determine if differences in motility or biomechanical properties of the colon could account for this gender difference. In 18 healthy subjects (nine males), a catheter assembly incorporating a balloon and perfused side holes, connected to a barostat, was positioned in the left colon. The system was used to determine compliance, sensation in response to phasic balloon distension, and changes in motor activity and tone in response to a meal. There was no significant difference in any of these variables between males and females. We conclude that there is no gender difference in colonic motor function or sensation to balloon distension. The increased prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome in females may be related to psychosocial factors rather than differences in colonic motor function.

It has been suggested that the presence of Barrett's mucosa is a marker for potential malignancy in other organs. Our objective was to study subjects with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus arising in Barrett's epithelium.We reviewed the medical records of patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma, with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and with no esophageal pathology and recorded the occurrence of extraesophageal malignancies and the heavy use of tobacco and alcohol.The prevalence of extraesophageal malignancies was not higher in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma (15%) than in patients in either control group (14% each). Patients with either type of cancer of the esophagus had higher rates of tobacco and alcohol use than normal controls (tobacco: p = 0.02 and p0.01 for adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, respectively, vs. normal controls; alcohol: p0.01 for each esophageal malignancy vs. normal controls). The rate of tobacco and alcohol use was higher in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma than in those with adenocarcinoma, but only the difference in alcohol consumption was statistically significant (p0.01).Patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus are not at higher risk for development of extraesophageal malignancy. This observation applies to both those with and without underlying Barrett's epithelium. Alcohol and tobacco use appear to be related to the malignant transformation of esophageal epithelium.