Introduction
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that accompanies affected patients throughout their entire lives. Many affected patients suffer from frequent attacks of the disease, and sometimes complications such as narrowing of the bowel or fistulas can occur. In addition, there are strong medications that often have to be taken for life. For many patients, the question of whether and how the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease affects their life expectancy is therefore of central importance.
What influence does Crohn’s disease have on life expectancy?
In general, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have little or no negative impact on life expectancy. Accordingly, those affected usually live just as long as healthy people. This applies as long as the disease is treated by a specialist and the medication is correctly adjusted.
If Crohn’s disease is left untreated, serious complications can arise after some time, for example the so-called toxic megacolon, which is an emergency and must be treated immediately. It is therefore important for affected patients to take their own treatment seriously, to seek medical treatment and to take the prescribed medication as directed by their doctor. This can also reduce the likelihood of the occurrence of typical late complications such as constrictions in the bowel or fistulas, which would reduce life expectancy.
Many patients suffer further relapses after the first outbreak of the disease, although the activity of the disease generally tends to decrease over the course of the disease. The frequent occurrence of disease relapses can increase the probability of complications such as intestinal constrictions, intestinal obstruction, fistulas or intestinal perforations. These complications are sometimes very dangerous and can be life-threatening.
Therefore, correct medication and specialist medical care is essential for Crohn’s disease patients. Statistically speaking, however, the relapse itself has no negative impact on the patient’s life expectancy. Even in patients whose disease cannot be well controlled and who therefore have recurrent relapses, statistical life expectancy is hardly affected.
An optimal specialist therapy including appropriate medication is a basic prerequisite for achieving a normal life expectancy in Crohn’s disease patients! Untreated, the disease can lead to serious and life-threatening complications. Also, some of the drugs used for treatment may in rare cases have serious and life-threatening side effects.
For example, azathioprine increases the risk of skin cancer and methotrexate can cause severe liver damage. Nevertheless, patients with Crohn’s disease should never be afraid to take these drugs as prescribed by their physician. The consequences of poorly controlled or untreated Crohn’s disease clearly outweigh the side effects of taking the medication in terms of its negative impact on the patient’s health.
In general, Crohn’s disease patients have an increased risk of developing a malignant new formation in the intestinal area – i.e. colorectal cancer. If this case occurs, life expectancy is significantly reduced. The risk of colorectal cancer depends on the location of Crohn’s disease.
Thus, patients in whom only the last part of the colon, the so-called rectum, is affected have the lowest risk. The risk increases with the number of affected bowel segments. Secondly, the risk of colorectal cancer depends on the duration of the disease.
The more time has passed since the onset of the disease, the higher the risk. The exact statistical probability for the development of colorectal cancer in Crohn’s disease patients has not yet been conclusively clarified. Recent studies estimate the risk of colorectal cancer to be about three to seven times higher than that of the healthy population.
However, it is certain that the risk is significantly lower than for ulcerative colitis. In addition, some studies suggest that long-term treatment with mesalazine or sulfasalazine, which is commonly used in Crohn’s disease, offers some protection against the development of colorectal cancer.This is the reason why, unlike ulcerative colitis, there is currently no specific recommendation for the prevention of colorectal cancer in Crohn’s disease – but normal colorectal cancer screening from the age of 50 should not be avoided.
