Influence of the smoking habit in the surgery of inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

The smoking habit is a key factor in the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but little information exists as to the relationship between smoking habit, the need of surgery and its complications.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between smoking habit, the need of surgery, their complications and clinical recurrence after surgery in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

Methods: We studied a group of 62 patients (22 with UC and 40 with CD) with previous surgery. We analyzed the clinical and surgical characteristics of the disease. Smoking habit was established by a personal interview. This group of patients was compared with another control group of 202 patients (133 with UC and 69 with CD) with IBD without previous surgery.

Results: Smoking habit was similar between operated and non-operated patients for both UC (73% and 80% non-smokers) and CD (67% and 63% smokers) The number and type of complications after surgery were not related with smoking habit. In CD patients, although the recurrences did not depend on the smoking habit, they did occur earlier in smokers than in non smokers (83.6 +/- 21 vs 155 +/- 50 weeks, p = ns).

Conclusions: The smoking habit does not seem to influence significantly the need of surgery and post surgical development of IBD, although in CD the smokers seems to present recurrence before non smokers.