EARLY COMPLICATIONS IN PATIENTS PREVIOUSLY TREATED WITH CORTICOSTEROIDS - RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF 250 OPERATIONS ON PATIENTS WITH CROHNS-DISEASE OR ULCERATIVE-COLITIS
A retrospective analysis is presented of 205 major operations performed over a 10-yr period on 95 previously steroid-treated patients with Crohn''s disease (C.D.) or ulcerative colitis (U.C.). All patients were treated both in the medical and in the surgical gastroenterological department. The incidence of early postoperative complications was high, but there was nothing to suggest a relationship between the complications and the intensity of the preoperative steroid therapy. The mortality rate, duration of hospital convalescence and incidence of complications were significantly lower in those patients who had undergone elective in preference to emergency surgery. The fear of an increased complication rate following intensive steroid treatment of patients with acute C.D. or U.C. is unfounded.