Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2016; 22(14): 3860-3868
Published online Apr 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i14.3860
Cost-effectiveness of Crohn’s disease post-operative care
Emily K Wright, Michael A Kamm, Peter Dr Cruz, Amy L Hamilton, Kathryn J Ritchie, Sally J Bell, Steven J Brown, William R Connell, Paul V Desmond, Danny Liew
Emily K Wright, Michael A Kamm, Peter Dr Cruz, Amy L Hamilton, Kathryn J Ritchie, Sally J Bell, Steven J Brown, William R Connell, Paul V Desmond, Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Melbourne, Australia
Michael A Kamm, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
Danny Liew, Melbourne EpiCentre, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Parkville VIC 3010, Melbourne, Australia
Author contributions: Wright EK, Kamm MA and DeCruz P study concept and design; acquisition of data, analysis, data interpretation; drafting of the manuscript, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, statistical analysis; Hamilton AL acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript; Ritchie K acquisition and monitoring of data; Liew D analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript; statistical analysis; Bell SJ, Brown SJ, Connell WR and Desmond PV acquisition of data and critical review of manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study is a sub study of the Post-Operative Crohn’s Endoscopic Recurrence (POCER) study which was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of St Vincent’s Hospital Research Governance Unit (HREC-A 077/09).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is a sub study of the Post-Operative Endoscopic Recurrence (POCER) study which was registered and approved at Clinicaltrial.gov. Number NCT00989560.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: Michael A Kamm, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Victoria Parade, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Melbourne, Australia. mkamm@unimelb.edu.au
Telephone: + 61-3-94175064 Fax: +61-3-94162485
Received: November 15, 2015
Peer-review started: November 16, 2015
First decision: December 11, 2015
Revised: December 22, 2015
Accepted: January 30, 2016
Article in press: January 31, 2016
Published online: April 14, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The health care costs of a proactive disease-prevention post-operative Crohn’s disease strategy are substantial. Much of this cost relates to drug therapy (biologics). Active care involving endoscopic monitoring for disease recurrence, costs more than symptom-based monitoring. The occurrence of endoscopic recurrence increases costs significantly, related largely to drug therapy. Faecal calprotectin to monitor for disease recurrence can substantially decrease post-operative costs.