Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and surgery: a case-control study using community controls.

BACKGROUND

The cause of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is unknown. Previous studies found a link with a history of surgery but had methodologic problems.

OBJECTIVE

To help elucidate medical and associated risk factors for sporadic CJD as part of the 1993 to 1995 European Union collaborative studies of CJD.

METHODS

Medical and associated risk factors from 326 patients with sporadic CJD, taken from population-based studies performed between 1993 and 1995 in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, were compared with 326 community controls recruited by telephone in 2000.

RESULTS

A history of surgery was significantly associated with the risk of sporadic CJD (odds ratio [OR]: 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2 to 2.6), which was not dependent on the number of surgical procedures, and was stronger in females (OR: 2.5; 95% CI: 1.5 to 4.0). Gynecologic (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.0 to 2.3) and "other" operations (any operation other than neurologic, eye, ear, gallbladder, gastrointestinal, and gynecologic operations, tonsillectomy, and appendectomy) (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1 to 2.1) were associated with risk of CJD. Tonsillectomy (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2 to 0.5) and appendectomy (OR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4 to 0.8) were observed less frequently in cases. An increased risk was also found with a history of ear piercing in females (OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1 to 2.5) and psychiatric visit(s) (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.5 to 4.3).

CONCLUSIONS

These results support the hypothesis that cases of sporadic CJD may result from hitherto unrecognized surgical contamination events. However, because of the limits of the study design, the rarity of the disease, and the potential for bias, the results should be interpreted with caution.