Anti-TNF alpha in the treatment of ulcerative colitis: A valid approach for organ-sparing or an expensive option to delay surgery?

Table 1 Rate of colectomy after therapy with Infliximab

Ref.	RCT	Pts (w)	Tipe off disease	FU	Rate of colectomy in IFX Pts	Rate of colectomy in control Pts	P value
Rutgeerts et al[51] Sandborn et al[52]	Y	364 (IFX) 364 (control)	Moderate to severe UC	54 wk (ACT1)	9.5%	14.7%	< 0.05
				30 wk (ACT2)
Sands et al[53]	Y	8 (IFX) 3 (control)	Severe active steroid-refractory	2 wk	50%	100%	NS
Järnerot et al[25]	Y	24 (IFX) 21 (control)	Severe to moderate UC not responding to conventional therapy	3 mo	29.2%	66.7%	0.017
Gustavsson et al[54]	Y	24 (IFX) 21 (control)	Severe to moderate UC not responding to conventional therapy	36 mo	50%	76%	0.012
Aratari et al[56]	N	15 (IFX)	Severe steroid-refractory UC	26 mo	18%
Teisner et al[57]	N	52 (IFX)	Acute, severe and chronic refractory UC	22 mo	27%
Ferrante et al[58]	N	121 (IFX)	Acute severe refractory UC	33 mo	17%	-	-
Oussalah et al[59]	N	191 (IFX) Multicenter	UC	18 mo	18.8%	-	-
Desmond et al[60]	N	21 (IFX)	UC	14 mo	9.5%	-	-
Garcia-Planella et al[61]	N	22 (IFX)	UC	84 mo	27.3%	-	-

RCT: Randomized controlled trial; Pts: Patients; FU: Follow-up; IFX: Infliximab; UC: Ulcerative colitis; Y: Yes; N: Not.

Table 2 Rate of overall post-operative morbidity and post-operative infectious complications in patients pre-operatively treated with Infliximab

Ref.	RCT	Pts (IFX vscontrol ) (n)	PO morbidity(IFX vs control )	P value	PO infectious complications (IFX vs control)	P value
Schluender et al[64]	N	17 vs 134	36% vs 28%	> 0.05	18% vs 8%	> 0.05
Selvasekar et al[62]	N	47 vs 254	62% vs 49%	0.10	28% vs 10%	< 0.01
Mor et al[63]	N	46 vs 46	34.8% vs 15.2%	0.004	21.7% vs 2.2%	0.011
Ferrante et al[65]	N	22 vs 119	11.1% vs 28.6%	> 0.05	9% vs 24%	0.161
Gainsbury et al[66]	N	29 vs 52	44.8% vs 44.2%	0.96	17.2% vs 26.9%	0.32
Rizzo et al[67]	N	16 vs 22	37.5% vs 22.7%	> 0.05	18.7% vs 18.2%	> 0.05

RCT: Randomized controlled trial; Pts: Patients; PO: Post-operative; IFX: Infliximab; Y: Yes.