IBD: Perioperative use of dexamethasone can reduce excessive inflammation and intestinal obstruction after surgery in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Although biological agents are widely used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), surgery is still the main treatment option for a large number of patients
.
According to reports, the colectomy rate for severely ill hospitalized patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) is close to 27%, and up to 75% of Crohn's disease (CD) patients will eventually undergo surgery

The researchers randomly divided the enrolled patients into two groups, one group received 8 mg intravenous dexamethasone (n = 151) after induction of surgical anesthesia or the other group received placebo (n = 151) treatment

Intention-to-treat analysis showed that patients receiving dexamethasone had a lower incidence of postoperative intestinal obstruction (22.
5% VS 38.
4%; P=0.
003) and a shorter first bowel time (28 hours VS 48 hours, P <0.
001) , The postoperative hospital stay was shortened (9.
0 VS 10.
0 days; P = 0.
002).
Compared with the control group, the postoperative pain of the patients using dexamethasone was reduced (P <0.
05)
.
In addition, postoperative nausea or vomiting (P = 0.

This study confirmed that a single intravenous injection of 8 mg of dexamethasone during induction of anesthesia can reduce the incidence of postoperative intestinal obstruction in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, the intensity of postoperative pain, and shorten the postoperative hospital stay of IBD patients undergoing elective surgery
.

Original source:

Tenghui Zhang.