Surgery for luminal Crohn’s disease

Table 1 Five "Golden Rules" of surgical management of Crohn’s disease[4]

Crohn’s disease is a panintestinal disease, with intermittent activity and the potential of focal exacerbations throughout the patient’s life

It is impossible to cure Crohn’s disease by excision. The surgeon is required only to treat the complications

The essence of surgical treatment is to make the operation as safe as possible. If the operation becomes safe and patients survive, they will inevitably have recurrences and so repeated operations may be required. Therefore, it is important to conserve as much gut as possible

All diseased bowels need not be excised, only that part with complications

If only stenotic complications are being treated, perhaps the stenosis can be simply widened by strictureplasty or dilatation