Ileoscopic balloon dilation of Crohn's disease strictures via stoma

Endoscopic evaluation of surgically altered bowel in inflammatory bowel disease: a consensus guideline from the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group

The majority of patients with Crohn's disease and a proportion of patients with ulcerative colitis will ultimately require surgical treatment despite advances in diagnosis, therapy, and endoscopic interventions. The surgical procedures that are most commonly done include bowel resection with anastomosis, strictureplasty, faecal diversion, and ileal pouch. These surgical treatment modalities result in substantial alterations in bowel anatomy. In patients with inflammatory bowel disease, endoscopy plays a key role in the assessment of disease activity, disease recurrence, treatment response, dysplasia surveillance, and delivery of endoscopic therapy. Endoscopic evaluation and management of surgically altered bowel can be challenging. This consensus guideline delineates anatomical landmarks and endoscopic assessment of these landmarks in diseased and surgically altered bowel.

Efficacy of drug and endoscopic treatment of Crohn's disease strictures: A systematic review

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Strictures are the commonest complication in Crohn's disease. Surgery and endoscopic dilation are the mainstays of treatment, while drug therapy has often been considered contraindicated. The benefit of nonsurgical treatments, particularly drug and endoscopic therapy, need to be defined.

METHODS

Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, PsycINFO, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library (inception until August 30, 2019) were searched. Studies with ≥ 10 patients with Crohn's disease strictures, reporting on outcomes following medication or endoscopic treatment, were included.

RESULTS

Of 3480 records, 85 studies met inclusion criteria and formed the basis of this analysis. Twenty-five studies assessed drug therapy; none were randomized trials. Despite study heterogeneity anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy appeared effective, with 50% of patients avoiding surgery after 4 years of follow up. No other drug therapy was of demonstrable benefit. Sixty studies assessed endoscopic therapy including 56 on endoscopic balloon dilation, two assessed needle knife stricturotomy, and two stent insertion. Dilation was equally effective for de novo and anastomotic strictures ≤ 5 cm in length, with most studies reporting a subsequent surgical rate of 30% to 50%. Repeat dilation was required in approximately half of all patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Anti-TNF drug therapy and endoscopic balloon dilation are effective strategies for avoiding surgery in patients with stricturing Crohn's disease. Additional endoscopic therapies require further evaluation. Early data suggest that combining these therapies may provide greater benefit than individual therapies. Optimization of current drug and endoscopic therapy, and the incorporation of newer therapies, are needed for stricturing Crohn's disease.

Practical guidelines on endoscopic treatment for Crohn's disease strictures: a consensus statement from the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group

Stricture formation is a common complication of Crohn's disease, resulting from the disease process, surgery, or drugs. Endoscopic balloon dilation has an important role in the management of strictures, with emerging techniques, such as endoscopic electroincision and stenting, showing promising results. The underlying disease process, altered bowel anatomy from disease or surgery, and concurrent use of immunosuppressive drugs can make endoscopic procedures more challenging. There is an urgent need for the standardisation of endoscopic procedures and peri-procedural management strategies. On the basis of an extensive literature review and the clinical experience of the consensus group, which consisted of representatives from the Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group, we propose detailed guidance on all aspects of the principles and techniques for endoscopic procedures in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease-associated strictures.

Role of interventional inflammatory bowel disease in the era of biologic therapy: a position statement from the Global Interventional IBD Group

Interventional (or therapeutic) inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) endoscopy has an expanding role in the treatment of disease and surgical adverse events. Endoscopic therapy has been explored and used in the management of strictures, fistulas/abscesses, colitis-associated neoplasia, postsurgical acute or chronic leaks, and obstructions. The endoscopic therapeutic modalities include balloon dilation, stricturotomy, stent placement, fistulotomy, fistula injection and clipping, sinusotomy, EMR, and endoscopic submucosal dissection. With a better understanding of the disease course of IBD, improved long-term impact of medical therapy, and advances in endoscopic technology, we can foresee interventional IBD becoming an integrated part of the multidisciplinary approach to patients with complex IBD.

Identification of Endpoints for Development of Antifibrosis Drugs for Treatment of Crohn's Disease

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Intestinal fibrosis is a challenge to management of patients with Crohn's disease (CD); there is an urgent need to expedite development of antifibrosis drugs for this disease. The International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) aimed to identify a set of endpoints that can be used to determine efficacy of antifibrosis agents tested in clinical trials of patients with CD.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review to identify clinical, radiologic, biochemical, endoscopic, and composite endpoints used in assessing activity of fibrostenosing CD and response to treatment, and determined their operational properties. A panel of IOIBD experts performed a consensus process to identify the best endpoints for inclusion in clinical trials, through a 2-round, Delphi-style online survey.

RESULTS

A total of 36 potentially relevant endpoints for intestinal fibrosis were selected and assessed. Forty-eight physicians with expertise in inflammatory bowel disease, from 5 regions (North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America), participated in the Delphi consensus process. A core set of 13 endpoints (complete clinical response, long-term efficacy, sustained clinical benefit, treatment failure, radiological remission, normal quality of life, clinical remission without steroids, therapeutic failure, deep remission, complete absence of occlusive symptoms, symptom-free survival, bowel damage progression, and no disability) were rated as critical. Agreement was high among the experts.

CONCLUSIONS

Members of the IOIBD reached expert consensus on a set of endpoints that can be used to assess antifibrosis agents in trials of patients with CD. Studies are needed to clarify methods for measuring these outcomes and validate measurement instruments.

Management of Crohn's Disease and Complications in Patients With Ostomies

Fecal diversion with ostomy construction can be a temporary or definitive surgical measure for the treatment of refractory inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the fecal diversion surgery is associated with various stoma, peristomal complications, and recurrence or occurrence of de novo small bowel Crohn's disease (CD). Stoma complications often need enterostomal therapy or surgical revision. Peristomal cutaneous lesions, such as pyoderma gangrenosum, usually require immunomodulator or biological therapy. Routine monitoring for occurrence or recurrence of CD with endoscopy or imaging should be performed, and prophylaxis with mesalamines, antibiotics, immunomodulators, or anti-TNFα or anti-integrin agents is needed for patients at risk. Those agents, along with corticosteroids, may also be used for the treatment of CD of the neo-small intestine, particularly inflammatory and fistulizing phenotypes. Endoscopic balloon dilation or endoscopic stricturotomy via stoma is safe and feasible to treat short (<4-5 cm), straight strictures in the neo-small intestine. Medically or endoscopically refractory fibrostenotic disease usually requires surgical intervention, with bowel-sparing stricturoplasty being the surgical treatment of choice.

A Pooled Analysis of Efficacy, Safety, and Long-term Outcome of Endoscopic Balloon Dilation Therapy for Patients with Stricturing Crohn's Disease

BACKGROUND

Endoscopic balloon dilation (EBD) is widely used to manage Crohn's disease-associated strictures. However, most studies of the safety and efficacy are small and heterogenous. We performed a combined analysis of published studies and evaluated 676 comprehensive individual participant data sets to determine the overall effects of EBD.

METHODS

Citations from the Embase, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane library from 1991 through 2013 were systematically reviewed, and references of cited articles were assessed for relevant publications. We collected data from studies including ≥15 patients and additionally generated a unique individual patient database containing 676 individual data sets derived from 12 studies. Technical feasibility, short-term and long-term efficacies, and safety were evaluated.

RESULTS

In 1463 patients with Crohn's disease who underwent 3213 EBD procedures, 98.6% of strictures were ileal and 62% anastomotic. The technical success rate of the EBDs was 89.1% with a clinical efficacy of 80.8%. Complications occurred in 2.8% per procedure. After 24 months of follow-up, 73.5% of subjects underwent redilation and 42.9% surgical resection. In a multivariate analysis of 676 individual patients, a stricture length of ≤5 cm was associated with a surgery-free outcome; every 1 cm increase of stricture length increased the hazard of need for surgery by 8% (P = 0.008). Inflammation did not affect outcomes or rate of complications.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on a systematic literature review and analysis of data sets from 676 patients, EBD has a high rate of short-term technical and clinical efficacies, with substantial long-term efficacy and acceptable rates of complication.