Surgical treatment for Crohn's disease, with special reference to operative procedures and their relationship to recurrence.

Of 14 patients with Crohn's disease, 12 to whom operation was performed at our department were studied with regard to operative procedures and their relationship to recurrence. The following results were obtained: 1) Resection of the intestinal lesions was performed in all patients. The recurrence rate was as high as 42% (5 of 12 cases). 2) If the length of the normal intestine resected was more than 10 cm, there was no correlation between the length of the resection and recurrence of the disease. 3) The postoperative recurrence rate tended to decrease by means of regional lymph nodes dissection. From these results, it is concluded that the recommendable operative procedures for Crohn's disease are intestinal resection including the normal intestine more than 10 cm in length and regional lymph nodes dissection.