Clinical and operative experience with non-Caucasian patients with Crohn's disease

Fifteen black patients with Crohn's disease were seen during a ten-year period (1975-1985). They represented 11 percent of our experience with Crohn's disease during that time. These patients had an earlier age of onset of Crohn's symptoms than our white patients, and correct diagnosis was delayed for an average of four years. All 15 patients required abdominal surgery, and seven (47 percent) suffered recurrences necessitating additional abdominal operations. The five-year actuarial estimate of probability of reoperation was 77 percent. Extraintestinal manifestations were present in all patients, and six (40 percent) had multiple manifestations. These disease manifestations are more severe than those noted in series that studied predominantly caucasian Crohn's populations, and suggest that Crohn's disease in the black patient is a distinctly aggressive form.