Trends in Colectomies for Colorectal Neoplasms in Ulcerative Colitis: a National Inpatient Sample Database Analysis over Two Decades

Rates of colectomy for ulcerative colitis have been decreasing, particularly since the advent of biologics, but the subsequent impact of reduced colectomy rates on the development of neoplasms in chronically treated ulcerative colitis colons is unknown. To determine trends in colectomy for colorectal neoplasms in adult patients with ulcerative colitis. Adult admissions with ulcerative colitis were identified from the National Inpatient Sample from 1993 to 2015. The rate of colectomy with concurrent colorectal neoplasm served as the primary outcome and was evaluated using time trend linear and multivariable regression. There were 366,286 admissions with ulcerative colitis including 16,556 (4.5%) total colectomies. Of those undergoing colectomy, 2018 (12.2%) had a concurrent diagnosis of colorectal neoplasm. The proportion of colectomies for ulcerative colitis with concurrent colorectal neoplasm increased from 10.3 to 12.5% (pTrend = 0.004). Specifically, the proportion of colectomies performed for dysplasia/benign neoplasm and rectal cancer increased from 3.5 to 5.6% (pTrend < 0.001) and from 2.6 to 3.0% (pTrend = 0.028) respectively, and those for colon cancer remained stable (4.5 to 3.9%, pTrend = 0.423). On multivariate regression, year of colectomy was a significant predictor of colectomy for colorectal neoplasm (OR = 1.044, 95% CI = 1.025–1.062). Operative management of ulcerative colitis appears to be slowly increasing in oncological indications. The rising proportions of colectomies performed for colorectal neoplasms suggest the need for continued screening in these patients, including rectal surveillance.