Management of Crohn’s disease in smokers:Is an alternative approach necessary?

Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) is a chronic condition with a pathogenic background that involves both genetic and environmental factors.Although important progress has been made regarding the former in the last decade,scarce knowledge is available for the latter.In this sense,smoking remains the most important environmental factor in IBD.Active smoking increases the risk of developing Crohn's disease(CD).Moreover,CD patients who start or continue smoking after disease diagnosis are at risk for poorer outcomes such as higher therapeutic requirements and disease-related complications,as compared to those patients who quit smoking or who never smoked.However,the harmful effect of active smoking is not uniform in all patients or in all clinical scenarios.Interventions designed to facilitate smoking cessation may impact the course of the disease.In this article,the available evidence of the deleterious effects of smoking on CD is reviewed in detail,and alternative therapeutic approaches to CD in smokers are proposed.

Use of granulocyte/monocytapheresis in ulcerative colitis:A practical review from a European perspective

Half of the patients with ulcerative colitis require at least one course of systemic corticosteroids in their lifetime.Approximately 75%of these patients will also require immunosuppressive drugs(i.e.,thiopurines or biological agents)in the mid-term to avoid colectomy.Immunosuppressive drugs raise some concerns due to an increased risk of serious and opportunistic infections and cancer,particularly in elderly and co-morbid patients,underlining the unmet need for safer alternative therapies.Granulocyte/monocytapheresis(GMA),a CE-marked,non-pharmacological procedure for the treatment of ulcerative colitis(among other immune-mediated diseases),remains the only therapy targeting neutrophils,the hallmark of pathology in ulcerative colitis.GMA has proven its efficacy in different clinical scenarios and shows an excellent and unique safety profile.In spite of being a first line therapy in Japan,GMA use is still limited to a small number of centres and countries in Europe.In this article,we aim to give an overview from a European perspective of the mechanism of action,recent clinical data on efficacy and practical aspects for the use of GMA in ulcerative colitis.

Impact of environmental and dietary factors on the course of inflammatory bowel disease

Besides their possible effects on the development of inflammatory bowel disease(IBD),some environmental factors can modulate the clinical course of both ulcerative colitis(UC) and Crohn's disease(CD).This review is mainly devoted to describing the current knowledge of the impact of some of these factors on the outcome of IBD,with special emphasis on smoking and diet.Although the impact of smoking on the susceptibility to develop CD and UC is firmly established,its influence on the clinical course of both diseases is still debatable.In CD,active smoking is a risk factor for postoperative recurrence.Beyond this clinical setting,smoking cessation seems to be advantageous in those CD patients who were smokers at disease diagnosis,while smoking resumption may be of benefit in ex-smokers with resistant UC.The role of dietary habits on the development of IBD is far from being well established.Also,food intolerances are very frequent,but usually inconsistent among IBD patients,and therefore no general dietary recommendations can be made in these patients.In general,IBD patients should eat a diet as varied as possible.Regarding the possible therapeutic role of some dietary components in IBD,lessons should be drawn from the investigation of the primary therapeutic effect of enteral nutrition in CD.Low-fat diets seem to be particularly useful.Also,some lipid sources,such as olive oil,medium-chain triglycerides,and perhaps omega-3 fatty acids,might have a therapeutic effect.Fermentable fiber may have a role in preventing relapses in inactive UC.

Postoperative Crohn’s disease recurrence: A practical approach

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory condition that may involve any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Although several drugs have proven efficacy in inducing and maintaining disease in remission, resectional surgery remains as a cornerstone in the management of the disease, mainly for the treatment of its stenosing and penetrating complications. However, the occurrence of new mucosal (endoscopic) lesions in the neoterminal ileum early after surgery is almost constant, it is followed in the mid-term by clinical symptoms and, in a proportion of patients, repeated intestinal resections are required. Pathogenesis of postoperative recurrence (POR) is not fully understood, but luminal factors (commensal microbes, dietary antigens) seem to play an important role, and environmental and genetic factors may also have a relevant influence. Many studies tried to identify clinical predictors for POR with heterogeneous results, and only smoking has repeatedly been associated with a higher risk of POR. Ileocolonoscopy remains as the gold standard for the assessment of appearance and severity of POR, although the real usefulness of the available endoscopic score needs to be revisited and alternative techniques are emerging. Several drugs have been evaluated to prevent POR with limited success. Smoking cessation seems to be one of the more beneficial therapeutic measures. Aminosalicylates have only proved to be of marginal benefit, and they are only used in low-risk patients. Nitroimidazolic antibiotics, although efficient, are associated with a high rate of intolerance and might induce irreversible side effects when used for a long-term. Thiopurines are not widely used after ileocecal resection, maybe because some concerns in giving immunomodulators in asymptomatic patients still remain. In the era of biological agents and genetic testing, a well-established preventive strategy for POR is still lacking, and larger studies to identify good clinical, serological, and genetic predictors of early POR as well as more effective drugs (or drug combinations) are needed.

Effectiveness of infliximab after adalimumab failure in Crohn's disease

AIM:To evaluate the effectiveness of infliximab as a second-line therapy in Crohn's disease patients after adalimumab failure. METHODS:A historical cohort study in a community-based gastroenterology practice evaluated Crohn's disease patients treated with infliximab (induction plus maintenance) after adalimumab failure. Patients were identified using a large Spanish database (ENEIDA). RESULTS:We included 15 Crohn's disease patients who received infliximab after adalimumab failure. Five patients discontinued adalimumab due to loss of response, 3 due to adverse events and 7 due to partial response. After infliximab therapy was started, all patients who had interrupted adalimumab due to loss of efficacy regained response. All patients who discontinued adalimumab due to adverse events responded to infliximab and maintained this response; one of these patients had an uneventful course on infliximab, but 2 developed adverse events. None of the 7 patients who interrupted adalimumab due to partial response reached remission with infliximab. CONCLUSION:Switching from adalimumab to infliximab may be useful in patients who develop adverse effects or loss of response, however, the benefit of infliximab in primary nonresponders was not established.

Management and outcomes of patients with Crohn’s disease with first vs multiple surgeries:results from the PRACTICROHN study

Background:Surgery in Crohn’s disease(CD)may be associated with poor prognosis and clinical and surgical recurrence.The aim of this study was to describe and compare the post-operative management and outcomes of patients with CD who underwent first vs recurrent surgeries.Methods:Observational study that included adult CD patients from 26 Spanish hospitals who underwent ileocolonic resection with ileocolonic anastomosis between January 2007 and December 2010.Data were retrospectively collected from the medical records.Results:Data from 314 patients were analysed,of whom 262(83%)underwent first surgery and 52(17%)referred to previous CD surgeries.Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups except for a higher rate of stricturing behavior at diagnosis among re-operated patients(P=0.03).After surgery,a higher proportion of re-operated patients received prophylactic treatment with immunomodulators compared with patients with first surgery(P=0.04).In re-operated patients,time to clinical recurrence was not associated with the fact of receiving or not prophylaxis,whereas,in patients with first surgery,recurrence-free survival was greater when prophylaxis was received(P=0.03).Conclusions:After surgery,a higher proportion of patients with previous surgeries received prophylactic treatment with immunomodulators compared with patients with first surgery.Although prophylactic treatment was beneficial for preventing clinical recurrence in patients operated on for the first time,it did not significantly reduce the risk of further recurrence in patients with previous surgeries.This suggests that effective prophylactic therapies are still needed in this subset of patients.