Medical therapy for Crohn’s disease has changed significantly over the past 20 years with the increasing use of immunosuppressants. In contrast, surgery rates are still high and evidence about the the changes in the outcome of Crohn’s disease over the past decades is scarce. Aims: The objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of the surgical rates and medical therapy in the population-based Veszprém county database. Methods: Data of 506 Crohn’s disease patients were analyzed (age at diagnosis: 31.5 years, SD: 13.8 years). Both hospital and outpatient records were collected and comprehensively reviewed. The study population was divided into three groups based on the year of diagnosis (cohort A: 1977–1989, cohort B: 1990–1998 and cohort C: 1999–2008). Results: Overall azathioprine, systemic steroid, and biological (only available after 1998) exposure was 45.8, 68.6, and 9.5%, respectively. The 1 and 5-year probabilities of azathioprine use were 3.2 and 6.2% in cohort A, 11.4 and 29.9% in cohort B, and 34.8 and 46.2% in cohort C. In multivariate analysis, decade of diagnosis (P<0.001), age at onset (P = 0.008), disease behavior at diagnosis (P<0.001), and need for systemic steroids (P<0.001) were significantly associated with the time to initiation of azathioprine therapy. Early azathioprine use was significantly associated with the time to intestinal surgery in Crohn’s disease patients; in a multivariate Cox analysis (HR: 0.43, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.28–0.65) and after matching on propensity scores for azathioprine use (HR: 0.42,95% CI:0.26–0.67). Conclusions: This population-based inception cohort showed that reduction in surgical rates was independently associated with increased and earlier azathioprine use. Orv. Hetil., 2012, 153, 541–552.
The Changing Prognosis of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease by Decades