Clinical characteristics and prognosis analysis of Crohn's disease complicated with secondary upper gastrointestinal fistulas
10.3760/cma.j.cn101480-20250224-00029
- VernacularTitle:克罗恩病继发上消化道瘘的临床特征及预后分析
- Author:
Jie XU
1
;
Ming DUAN
;
Jiajia ZHAO
;
Yi LI
;
Weiming ZHU
Author Information
1. 南京中医药大学金陵临床医学院，南京 210002
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Crohn's disease;
Upper gastrointestinal fistula;
Duodenal fistula;
Primary repair;
Anastomosis near the duodenum;
Recurrence
- From:
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
2025;09(4):303-309
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To evaluate the clinical characteristics of Crohn's disease (CD) patients with secondary upper gastrointestinal fistulas and analyze risk factors for recurrence.Methods:A restrospective observational research method was performed. Clinical data of CD patients with secondary upper gastrointestinal fistulas treated at Eastern Theater General Hospital of PLA from January 2010 to August 2024 were analyzed. Based on postoperative recurrence of upper gastrointestinal fistulas, the patients were divided into recurrence group and non-recurrence group. Differences in clinical data between the two groups were compared, and further multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors for fistula recurrence.Results:A total of 72 CD patients with secondary upper gastrointestinal fistulas were included, consisting of 48 males and 24 females, with a mean age of 39±12 years and a disease duration of 97±56 months, accounting for 2.8% of all CD patients undergoing surgeries during the same period. Among these patients, 75 upper gastrointestinal fistulas from 72 patients were identified, including 67 patients of simple duodenal fistula, 2 of simple gastric fistula, and 3 of double fistulas (2 of double duodenal fistulas and 1 of duodenal fistula combined with gastric fistula) .The preoperative diagnostic positivity rates were 55.6% (40/72) for gastroscopy, 54.2% (39/72) for upper gastrointestinal contrast imaging, 22.2% (16/72) for abdominal CT, and 22.2% (16/72) for colonoscopy. A history of biologic therapy was present in 33.3% (24/72) of patients, but none achieved fistula healing. All 72 patients underwent surgical treatment, with primary lesion surgical approaches including resection with anastomosis (37 patients, 51.4%) and resection with stoma (35 patients, 48.6%). Except for one gastric fistula treated by resection, all other fistulas underwent primary repair. During a median follow-up of 69 (40, 113) months, 8 patients (11.1%) required reoperation due to recurrent upper gastrointestinal fistulas (classified as the recurrence group), while the remaining 64 patients were assigned to the non-recurrence group. Univariate analysis revealed that the recurrence group had a higher proportion of patients aged 30-40 years ( P = 0.003), malnutrition ( P = 0.040), and anastomosis near the duodenum ( P = 0.047), but a lower proportion of postoperative biologic use ( P = 0.007) .Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that malnutrition and anastomosis near the duodenum were not the risk factors for duodenal fistula recurrence (both P > 0.05) . Conclusions:Upper gastrointestinal fistulas secondary to CD are rare, predominantly presenting as simple duodenal fistulas. Diagnosis primarily relies on gastroscopy and gastrointestinal contrast imaging. Biologic therapy shows poor efficacy, and most patients do not recur after the primary repair surgery of duodenal fistulas.
