[Modern surgery for inflammatory bowel disease]

Despite the advances in the medical management, especially biologics, there are still clear indications for operative management of IBD. For Crohn's disease, surgical therapy plays an important role after failure of medical management and for treatment of complications. In recent years, however, there has been a change in the treatment philosophy of patients with isolated involvement of the ileocecal region, and for selected patients, primary surgical resection appears to be an equivalent treatment alternative to therapy with biologics. In ulcerative colitis, surgery offers the only curative option. In severe acute colitis, surgery is indicated when conservative treatment is not effective and/or when there is a risk of colonic perforation. Indications for elective surgery are failure of conservative therapy and malignant transformation. The ileoanal J-pouch reconstruction is the standard procedure after restorative proctocolectomy with excellent functional long-term results. The increasing complexity of indications and minimally invasive surgical techniques, as well as the demanding perioperative treatment, led to an increasing specialization in the surgical treatment of IBD patients, with IBD-surgeons collaborating as a team with gastroenterologists to optimize the outcome of IBD-patients.