Incidence of and Risk Factors for Free Bowel Perforation in Patients with Crohn's Disease

Abstract

Background: Incidence of and risk factors for intestinal free perforation (FP) in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) are not established.

Aim: To establish rate of and risk factors for FP in a large cohort of CD patients.

Methods: Medical records of CD patients who visited Asan Medical Center from June 1989 to December 2012 were reviewed. After matching the FP patients to controls (1:4) by gender, year, and age at CD diagnosis, and disease location, their clinical characteristics were compared using conditional logistic regression analysis.

Results: Among 2043 patients who were included in our study cohort, 44 patients (2.15%) developed FP over a median follow-up period of 79.8 months (interquartile range 37.3-124.6), with an incidence of 3.18 per 1000 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.37-4.28]. All 44 patients underwent emergency surgery, and eight patients underwent reoperation within 12 months (8/44, 18.2%). Multivariable-adjusted analysis revealed that anti-TNF therapy [odds ratio (OR), 3.73; 95% CI 1.19-11.69; p = 0.024] was associated with an increased risk of FP.

Conclusions: The incidence of FP in a large cohort of Korean CD patients was 2.15%, which was similar to that in Western reports. Anti-TNF therapy could be risk factors for FP.

Keywords: Anti-TNF; Crohn’s disease; Intestinal perforation; Stricture.