Objective: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is associated with the occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). We aimed to assess the prevalence and associated risk factors for VTE in a large national cohort of IBD patients.
Material and methods: Data from patients of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS) enrolled between 2006 and 2013 were analyzed.
Results: A total of 2284 IBD patients were analyzed of which 1324 suffered from CD and 960 from UC. VTE prevalence was 3.9% (90/2284) overall and 3.4% (45/1324) in CD patients (whereof 2.4% suffered from DVT and 1.5% from PE) and 4.7% (45/960) in UC patients (whereof 3.2% suffered from DVT and 2.4% from PE). Median disease duration in CD patients with VTE was 12 years [IQR 8-23] compared to eight years [3-16] in CD patients without VTE (p = 0.001). Disease duration in UC patients with VTE was seven years [4-18] compared to six years [2-13] in UC patients without VTE (p = 0.051). Age at CD diagnosis ≥40 years (OR 1.851, p = 0.073) and disease duration >10 years (OR 1.771, p = 0.088) showed a trend to be associated with VTE. In UC patients, IBD-related surgery (OR 3.396, p = 0.004) and pancolitis (OR 1.927, p = 0.050) were significantly associated with VTE.
Conclusions: VTE are prevalent in CD and UC patients. Pancolitis and UC-related surgery are significantly associated with VTE in UC patients.
Keywords: Crohn's disease; thromboembolic complications; ulcerative colitis; venous thromboembolism.