Perforation of the intestine in inflammatory bowel disease. An OMGE survey.

This presentation assesses the incidence of perforation of the intestine in patients with inflammatory bowel disease by reviewing the incidence of this complication in a total of 3175 patients from the OMGE inflammatory bowel disease multi-national survey. Amongst 1928 patients with ulcerative colitis, perforation was noted in only 5 (0.3%), which is much lower than in previous series (from 1% to 2%). By contrast, 19 of 1247 patients with Crohn's disease had perforated (1.5%). The survey thus suggests that the incidence of perforation in ulcerative colitis has fallen in the last 2 decades, probably as a result of the widespread implementation of early surgery. The risk of perforation of Crohn's disease remains quite high.