*EMBARGOED All research presented at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting is strictly embargoed until Monday, October 19, 2015 at 8 AM (EDT).
Oral 26 Visceral Transplantation for End Stage Crohn’s Disease: 25 Years of Experience at a Single Center
Kareem Abu-Elmagd, MD, PhD, Director, Transplant Center, Director, Center for Gut Rehabilitation & Transplantation (CGRT), Cleveland Clinic Foundation
What’s new here and important for clinicians?
The clinicians must be aware that intestinal transplantation is a very valuable and life-saving therapy for Crohn’s disease patients who develop intestinal failure requiring home parenteral nutrition. Survival outcome has significantly improved over the last two decades because of technical advances and innovative immunosuppressive protocols with better long-term outcome compared to the non-Crohn’s disease patients (Figure 1). Very early after successful transplantation, most patients achieve full nutritional autonomy and enjoy unrestricted oral diet. Disease recurrence is rare, and does not affect graft function or cause mucosal structural damage.
What do patients need to know?
If you are a patient with Crohn’s disease who is not responding to medical therapy and you are requiring intravenous feeding, small bowel transplantation is a viable treatment for you, particularly if you are suffering from the life-threatening complications of intravenous nutrition. The results after transplantation are a lot better nowadays than they were a few years ago because of more effective anti-rejection medications. A few weeks after you receive the new intestine, you will be able to eat normally and come off the intravenous nutrition. You are very unlikely to develop Crohn’s in the new intestine, and if you do, it is very unlikely that you will suffer from malnutrition or any other problems that you experienced in the past.
Author Contact Kareem Abu-Elmagd, MD, PhD
Guilherme Costa MD, PhD
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