There is limited evidence on the effectiveness of biological therapy in stricturing complications in patients with Crohn's disease.
The study aims to determine the effectiveness of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents in Crohn's disease complicated with symptomatic strictures.
In this multicentric and retrospective study, we included adult patients with symptomatic stricturing Crohn's disease receiving their first anti-TNF therapy, with no previous history of biological, endoscopic or surgical therapy. The effectiveness of the anti-TNF agent was defined as a composite outcome combining steroid-free drug persistence with no use of new biologics or immunomodulators, hospital admission, surgery or endoscopic therapy during follow-up.
Overall, 262 patients with Crohn's disease were included (53% male; median disease duration, 35 months, 15% active smokers), who received either infliximab (
Anti-TNF agents are effective in approximately a quarter of patients with Crohn's disease and symptomatic intestinal strictures, and 68% of patients are free of surgery after a median of 40 months of follow-up. Early treatment and some potential predictors of response were associated with treatment success in this setting.