Early complications following surgical treatment for Crohn's disease

One hundred thirty patients with Crohn's disease operated at the Mount Sinai Hospital were studied to determine the incidence of early postoperative complications. Thirty per cent of patients developed postoperative complications, while eight per cent had major complications requiring readmission to the hospital, reoperation, or suture of a bleeding vessel. Patients with a low preoperative serum albumin concentration had a significantly higher incidence of nonseptic and multiple complications. Septic complications were more common in patients having extensive resections and in those with multiple previous operations. There was also a significantly higher complication rate in patients requiring permanent or temporary ileostomy as opposed to those having intestinal anastomosis. The majority of complications in the patients with ileostomy were nonseptic in nature. There were no mortalities in this series.