Report of Three Cases with Early Postoperative Fistulae in Crohn's Disease

Tsuneo Fukushima, Fumihiko Kito, Yoshiro Obi, Keigo Matsuo, Mitsunobu Kikuchi, Kazutaka Koganei, Masaru Shinozaki, Hideaki Kimura and Shoichi Fujii

Yokohama City Hospital

In 156 cases of intestinal operations for Crohn's disease, 3 developed repeated fistulae due to anastomotic leakage. Of these 3, there were 2 males and 1 female, and the mean age of onset of Crohn's disease was 19 years old. They developed early post-operative fistulae an average of 4.7 times (4, 5 and 5 times, respectively) and required reoperations 3 times respectively. As the results of the operations, one healed, one remained unhealed and one died. Early postoperative fistula of Crohn's disease has been reported as a frequent complication however, repeated, non-healing fistula is unusual. The cause is unknown. If this mechanism was solved, operations for Crohn's disease will become safer.

Key words
Chorn's disease, early fistula

Reprint requests
Tsuneo Fukushima Yokohama City Hospital 56 Okazawacho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, 240-8555 JAPAN

Accepted
October 14, 1998

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