Natural history of perianal Crohn's disease after fecal diversion.

Background: Temporary fecal diversion has been used to allow severe perianal Crohn's disease (CD) to heal. Most data on intestinal reconnection rates precede the biological era with limited patient follow-up after reconnection. We, therefore, sought to evaluate the natural history of perianal CD after fecal diversion.

Methods: We identified 49 patients with CD and perianal involvement who underwent fecal diversion between 1991 and 2011 at a tertiary referral care center. Demographics, medication use, onset and extent of disease, and surgical interventions were abstracted. We determined the percentage of patients who were able to restore intestinal continuity and assessed the sustainability of this reversal. Time to intestinal reconnection and subsequent procedures were determined. We also examined temporal trends in the proportion of patients with perianal CD undergoing diversion or management with seton/EUA/fistulotomy between 2000 and 2011.

Results: Fifteen of 49 patients (31%) reestablished intestinal continuity during the study follow-up period. Ten of 15 patients (67%) who had reestablished intestinal continuity required an additional procedure to divert the fecal stream. Of the 5 patients who remained reconnected, 3 patients required further procedures to control sepsis. The proportion of patients with CD requiring perianal surgical interventions declined between 2000 and 2011.

Conclusions: Severe perianal CD remains a challenging problem. In patients with CD with perianal disease requiring fecal diversion, the likelihood of sustained intestinal continuity remains low, despite greater biological use. However, there has been a temporal decline in the rate of surgical interventions required for perianal CD from 2000 to 2011.