Biological therapy, surgery, and hospitalization rates for inflammatory bowel disease: An observational Latin American comparative study between adults and pediatric patients

Objective

Compare the proportions of use of biological therapy, surgeries, and hospitalizations between adults and pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)—patients.

Patients and methods

Observational, retrospective, and multicenter study. Data were collected from all consecutive IBD patients seen as outpatients or admitted to hospital, during 2015–2021, in two IBD tertiary centers in a South Brazilian capital. Patients with unclassified colitis diagnosis were excluded from this study. Patients were classified as having CD or UC and sub-categorized as adult or pediatric according to age. Data were analyzed using frequency, proportion, Fisher's exact test, and Chi-square test.

Results

A total of 829 patients were included: 509 with CD (378 adults/131 pediatric) and 320 with UC (225/95). Among patients with CD, no differences were observed for proportions of use of biological therapy (80.2% in pediatric vs. 73.3% in adults; P = 0.129), surgery (46.6% vs. 50.8%; P = 0.419), or hospitalization (64.9% vs. 56.9%; P = 0.122). In UC, significant differences were observed for biological therapy (40.0% vs. 28.0%; P = 0.048) and hospitalization (47.4% vs. 24.0%; P < 0.001). No significant difference was observed in surgery rates (17.9% vs. 12.4%; P = 0.219).

Conclusions

Biological therapy and incidence of hospitalization were greater among pediatric patients with UC, compared with adults; no difference was observed in the need for abdominal surgery. In CD, no significant difference was observed in the three main outcomes between the age groups.