[Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases]

Surgical decision making in inflammatory bowel disease also includes aspect of the patient's general condition. If conservative therapy fails surgical therapy in ulcerative colitis and diverticulitis is a curative procedure. In Crohn's disease the situation is principally different. Conservative and surgical treatment being only symptomatical, they cannot lead to a definite cure. Quality of life and disease-free interval must be compared to the general risk, i.e. lethality and morbidity of conservative therapy as well as of surgery. The analysis of our own patients shows a minimal risk after surgery.