Background: The temporal trends in medical treatment and long-term outcomes of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) have not been well elucidated in China over the past 2 decades. Accordingly, we aimed to evaluate the treatment paradigm and long-term clinical course of Chinese patients with CD in a hospital-based cohort.
Methods: All adult patients newly diagnosed with CD (n = 1338) between 1999 and 2019 in the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital were included in this cohort. Medication utilization, disease outcomes, and risk factors were investigated.
Results: Overall, 48.7%, 35.6%, 67.8%, and 61.6% of patients used 5-aminosalicylates (5-ASA), corticosteroids, thiopurines, and infliximab (IFX), respectively. The cumulative risk of 5-ASA and corticosteroid initiation decreased during follow-up, whereas that of IFX initiation increased. Throughout a median follow-up duration of 26.4 (interquartile range, 12.0-49.2) months, a total of 486 and 300 patients underwent hospitalization and surgery, respectively. Of the 1097 patients with B1/B2 disease behavior at diagnosis, 10.3% experienced phenotype progression. The hospitalization rate decreased after 2015; however, surgery and phenotype progression rates did not significantly change. A Cox regression analysis indicated that IFX use since diagnosis was a contributing factor for lower rates of hospitalization and phenotype progression, whereas thiopurine use was associated with a lower surgery rate.
Conclusions: Infliximab use was observed to increase as 5-ASA and corticosteroid use decreased. Additionally, hospitalization rates decreased following temporal changes in IFX management, yet the surgery and phenotype progression rates remained the same.
Keywords: Crohn’s disease; hospitalization; infliximab; phenotype progression; surgery.
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