Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2015; 21(20): 6101-6116
Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i20.6101
Surgical strategies in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease
Colin T Baillie, Jennifer A Smith
Colin T Baillie, Jennifer A Smith, Department of Paediatric Surgery, Royal Liverpool Childrens Hospital, NHS Trust, Liverpool L12 2AP, United Kingdom
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Colin T Baillie, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Department of Paediatric Surgery, Royal Liverpool Childrens Hospital, NHS Trust, Eaton Rd, Liverpool L12 2AP, United Kingdom. colin.baillie@rlc.nhs.uk
Telephone: +49-231-9144880 Fax: +49-231-91448888
Received: February 10, 2015
Peer-review started: February 10, 2015
First decision: March 10, 2015
Revised: March 30, 2015
Accepted: April 9, 2015
Article in press: April 9, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Approximately 25% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease have onset of symptoms in childhood or adolescence. The unique and often severe features of childhood presentation make treatment decisions challenging. The dogma of surgical conservatism in Crohn's disease is challenged in the specific instance of left sided colitis. Furthermore we argue that the separation of adult and paediatric inflammatory bowel disease practice may disadvantage children, delaying adaption of innovative treatments and timely transition.