Inflammatory bowel disease in childhood--treatment and follow up.

This study is based on 150 patients whose first symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) appeared before puberty between 1955 and 1979. Recurrence of disease after improvement on medical treatment occurred within a shorter time in Crohn's disease than in ulcerative colitis. In this series it was twice as probable for surgery to be required within the first five years of illness for a child with Crohn's disease than for a child with ulcerative colitis. Median relapse time after medical treatment was 11 months for ulcerative colitis and 15 months for Crohn's disease, and the median relapse time after surgical treatment (including "incomplete" procedures) was over seven years for ulcerative colitis and just under five years for Crohn's disease. In ulcerative colitis it is suggested that earlier surgery might save the patient a period of distressing symptoms and reduce the risk of recurrence.