[Epidemiology, diagnosis, complications and surgery in inflammatory bowel disease]

In Digestive Disease Week 2012, held in San Diego, numerous studies were presented on the epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease. Some of these studies were population-based, providing greater information on known risk factors and helping to eliminate proposed risk factors for which there is no known evidence. In this meeting, special attention was paid to the natural history of the disease as well as surgery in patients aged more than 65 years old who should clearly be treated as a separate subgroup from the standard population in clinical trials from which older individuals are excluded. Another especially important topic were extraintestinal complications and manifestations, with Clostridium difficile and primary sclerosing cholangitis as the main culprits. Finally, with reference to diagnosis, calprotectin was confirmed as an essential marker in distinct scenarios and new imaging techniques such as virtual chromoendoscopy (i-scan) will be important in the management of these patients, although their precise role remains to be defined.