Abstract
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients have frequent complications after surgical procedures. Inflammation, immunosuppression and other factors that are more common in Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) may play a role in increasing their complication risk profile. IBD patients also undergo colonoscopy procedures more frequently than the general population. We aimed to identify risks of complications during or within 7 days of colonoscopy in IBD patients.
Methods: Colonoscopy procedures performed between January 2016 through March 2019 in an outpatient setting (hospital or ambulatory surgical center) were identified from the United States Medicare fee-for-service claims. All Medicare beneficiaries were eligible. Colonoscopy was identified using the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes (‘45378’ through ‘45393’ and ‘45398’). A patient was considered to have Crohn’s disease (CD) if ICD-10-CM code K50.x was recorded; Ulcerative Colitis (UC) if ICD-10-CM code K51.x was recorded; and IBD if either was recorded on the date of the procedure. Complications recorded during the procedure included intestinal perforation (K63.1), gastrointestinal hemorrhage (K92.2), and “other post-procedural complications of the digestive system” (K91), including, but not limited to, post-gastrectomy syndrome, malabsorption, and intestinal obstruction. We examined these complications in procedures performed on IBD patients compared to the general population using logistic regression. We accounted for age, sex, race, year of colonoscopy, comorbidity score, and procedure discontinuation (identified by HCPCS modifier) in the analysis. A random effect for patient was included in the model to account for multiple procedures performed in the same patient during the study period, restricting patients from contributing multiple procedures.
Results: There were 3,181,759 eligible procedures. There were 26,583 (0.84%) colonoscopy procedures in CD patients and 50,708 (1.59%) in UC patients. After accounting for other risk factors, CD and UC were more likely to have intestinal perforation than the non-IBD population (CD OR=2.7, 95% CI: 1.1–6.5; UC=OR 1.9, 95% CI 0.9–4.1), with CD having a statistically significant increase. Women were at greater risk for perforations (OR=1.3; 95% CI: 1.0–1.7). Conversely, IBD patients were less likely than non-IBD patients to have a complication recorded as “other” (CD OR=0.5; 95% CI: 0.2–0.9; UC OR=0.5; 95% CI:0.3–0.8). Older age at colonoscopy (OR=1.02, 95% CI 1.01–1.03), six or more comorbidities (OR=1.9, 95% CI: 1.5–2.3) and procedure discontinuation (OR=2.0, 95% CI 1.2–3.4) were associated with complications regardless of IBD status.
Conclusion: IBD was associated with higher risk of perforation, and lower risk of other postprocedural complications in outpatient colonoscopy procedures.
Exercise and Crohn’s Disease: Speculations on Potential Benefits
