Surgical Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis in Japan

Abstract

An epidemiological survey was conducted on 4, 484 patients diagnosed as having ulcerative colitis in nationwide hospitals up to June 1981. Among these patients, 640 who underwent surgery were investigated. The ages of the patients who had surgery ranged from 3 to i9years, and the average ages were 33.8 years for males and 38.0 years for females. Mast of the patients were in their twenties, followed by those in their thirties. The duration of the disease was one year or less in 40.0%, longer than one year in 59.1% and longer than 5 years in 14.5%. According to the pathological classification, many of the patients who underwent surgery were of colitis type, in the active stage, severe and of the relapsing-remitting type. One third of the surgical procedures were emergency operations and the remaindes were elective. The indications for emergency patients were major hemorrhage, perforation, peritonitis, toxic megacolon, etc. The indications for the elective patients included repeated recurrence, and limitations of medical treatment. The mortality was 6.0% for the elective operations and 35.4% for the emergency operations, The mortality was high in patients with perforation, peritonitis and toxic megacolon as complications.