Crohn Disease Stricturoplasty

Crohn disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), first described by Crohn, Ginsberg, and Oppenheimer in 1932. It usually presents as a transmural granulomatous inflammation affecting the gastrointestinal tract, most commonly the ileum, colon, or both. The disease prevalence is on the rise with the highest incidence seen in North America, the United Kingdom, and northern Europe. Patients usually present with chronic diarrhea, often accompanied by abdominal pain, weight loss, and blood or mucus in the stools. Extraintestinal manifestations of IBD generally occur in 25 to 40%. Inflammatory manifestations can also occur outside of the gastrointestinal tract within the skin, eyes, liver, and joints. Crohn disease is diagnosed clinically based on clinical signs and symptoms, imaging, including endoscopic with biopsy and tissue information in addition to laboratory results. Intestinal complications of Crohn disease include obstruction and perforation of the small intestine or colon, abscesses, fistulas, intestinal bleeding, and strictures. Strictures are narrowed segments of intestine that usually result in bowel obstruction and can be debilitating in patients with Crohn disease.  Strictureplasty is a surgical procedure that relieves bowel narrowing secondary to scar tissue formation that usually accumulates in the intestinal wall from repeated inflammation and healing in Crohn disease. It is a safe and effective procedure that will preserve the bowel length and prevent metabolic complications associated with short gut syndrome in patients with symptomatic obstruction.