[Diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory infiltrates of the abdominal cavity in Crohn disease].

An infiltrate in the abdominal cavity in Crohn's disease does not hinder successful drug therapy in most cases. A positive effect (regression or a marked decrease in the size of the infiltrate) is achieved in 80% of patients, mostly in those with a moderately or mildly severe form of the disease in which a sufficiently prolonged, 10-12-week course of antiinflammatory treatment can be conducted. Combination of prednisolone with azathioprine and antibiotics is most justified. The prednisolone dose is determined by the severity and activity of the disease rather than by the infiltrate. Antibiotics are necessary only in high fever and treatment with them may be limited to 10-14 days in the absence of septicemia. Interrupted seasonal courses of sulfasalazine therapy may fail to prevent exacerbation and, consequently, recurrent infiltrates. These respond readily to repeated drug therapy and do not expand the indications for surgery. Operations were performed on 14 patients, in 11 of them the infiltrate did not recur again.