486 Are Surgical Resection Margins A Risk Factor for Crohn’s Disease Recurrence?

Despite advances in treatment, Crohn’s disease (CD) recurrence is still high. Various factors correlated with recurrence are studied however, there is no consensus regarding the importance of disease-free resection margins. Our goal was to ascertain whether surgical margins predict recurrence rates of CD and identify other potential factors correlated with recurrence. This is a retrospective cohort study on patients who have had a colonic resection for CD from December 2016 to November 2019. Demographics, surgical procedure details, disease activity at resection margins and number of readmissions were recorded. Clinical recurrence was defined as readmission to hospital for a Crohn’s related flare-up within 12 months of surgical resection. Positive disease activity at the resection margins was defined histologically. We compared the readmission rate between all categories. Of the 55 patients identified, 52 (22 female) were included. Of these, seven were readmitted, six are smokers, 19 had mesenteric excision and 33 had Crohn’s positive resection margins. Chi-squared tests showed there are no significant correlations between patient and procedure variables, and readmission rates (p > 0.05). We have not found sufficient evidence to conclude that a disease-free resection margin post colonic resection or any other patient-related factors are associated with decreased recurrence of CD.