Prior appendectomy and the phenotype and course of Crohn’s disease

Table 1 Main characteristics of Crohn’s disease in non-appendectomized and appendectomized patients

	Non-appendectomized	Appendectomized	P
Number of patients	1770	716
Female gender	1019 (58)	515 (72)	0.001
Age at diagnosis (yr)	27.5 ± 12.8	32.1 ± 13	0.001
Duration of disease (yr)1	9.6 ± 8.6	9.1 ± 8.1	NS
Caucasian ethnicity	1484 (84)	663 (93)	0.001
High socio-economic status	535 (30)	171 (24)	0.001
Disease onset after 1987	1374 (78)	554 (77)	NS
Familial history	272 (15)	79 (11)	0.004
Current smokers	856 (48)	444 (62)	0.001
Disease location
Terminal ileum (L1)	489 (28)	277 (39)
Colon (L2)	548 (31)	173 (24)	0.001
Ileocolon (L3)	514 (29)	187 (26)
Upper gastrointestine (L4)	219 (12)	79 (11)
Extra-intestinal manifestations	1136 (64)	422 (59)	0.01

¹ at last visit or when censored Number in parentheses is percentages.

Table 2 5-yr and 10-yr cumulative risks of intestinal and perianal complications in non-appendectomized and appendectomized patients according to disease location

		Non-appendectomized				Appendectomized
Location		L1	L2	L3	L4	L1	L2	L3	L4
Number of patients		493	546	513	218	279	172	186	79
Intestinal stricture	5-yr	23 ± 2	2 ± 1	9 ± 1	22 ± 3	30 ± 3 b	3 ± 2	12 ± 3	29 ± 6
	10-yr	34 ± 3	7 ± 1	17 ± 2	42 ± 5	46 ± 4 b	6 ± 2	24 ± 4	42 ± 7
Intestinal perforation	5-yr	30 ± 2	7 ± 1	12 ± 2	12 ± 2	27 ± 3	4 ± 2 a	13 ± 3	10 ± 4
	10-yr	42 ± 3	12 ± 2	25 ± 2	23 ± 4	37 ± 4	4 ± 2 a	23 ± 4	29 ± 7
Perianal fistulization	5-yr	14 ± 2	32 ± 2	31 ± 2	23 ± 3	11 ± 2	19 ± 3 b	26 ± 4	15 ± 4
	10-yr	18 ± 2	49 ± 3	41 ± 3	29 ± 4	17 ± 3	33 ± 5 b	40 ± 5	21 ± 6

^bP < 0.001,

^aP < 0.05 vs appendectomized non-appendectomized patients (log rank). Other curves were not significantly different.

Table 3 Cumulative therapeutic needs in non-appendectomized and appendectomized patients according to disease location

	Non-appendectomized				Appendectomized
Location	L1	L2	L3	L4	L1	L2	L3	L4
Number of patients	493	546	513	218	279	172	186	79
Oral or IV steroids	396 (80)	469 (86)	462 (90)	195 (89)	228 (82)	150 (87)	173 (93)	71 (90)
Enteral or parenteral nutrition	53 (11)	1	94 (18)	48 (22)	23 (8)	0	35 (19)	13 (16)
Azathioprine or methotrexate	163 (33)	305 (56)	290 (57)	132 (61)	100 (36)	83 (48)	101 (54)	48 (61)
Infliximab	9 (2)	73 (13)	48 (9)	19 (9)	4 (1)	11 (6)	14 (8)	5 (6)
Intestinal resection	283 (57)	173 (32)	176 (34)	79 (36)	165 (59)	42 (24)	73 (39)	30 (38)

Numbers in parentheses are percentages. Comparison between non-appendectomized and appendectomized patients revealed no significant difference

Table 4 Comparison between two groups of patients included in prospective follow-up study

	Non-appendectomized	Appendectomized
Number of patients	591	591
Number of females	427	427
Mean age at diagnosis (yr)	31.8 ± 13.8	32.3 ± 13.4
Mean age at inclusion (yr)	34.0 ± 13.9	34.8 ± 13.7
Diagnosis after 1987 (n)	539	524
Diagnosis after 1995 (n)	351	357
L1 location (n)	202	204
L2 location (n)	162	160
L3 location (n)	156	156
L4 location (n)	71	71

No difference between the two groups was significant