The clinical value of faecal calprotectin and lactoferrin measurement in postoperative Crohn's disease.

Most patients with Crohn's disease (CD) ultimately require one or more operations over their lifetime. Nevertheless, surgery is not a cure and postoperative CD recurrence is common. Ileocolonoscopy has been considered to be the gold standard in the diagnosis and monitoring of postoperative recurrence in patients with CD. However, endoscopy is a time-consuming and invasive procedure. Simple and non-invasive methods for the detection of postoperative recurrence are desirable. Faecal inflammatory biomarkers such as calprotectin and lactoferrin provide an accurate and non-invasive diagnostic and monitoring modality for inflammatory bowel disease. However, there have been limited data on the role of faecal biomarkers in the postoperative setting. Recently, several studies evaluated the value of faecal calprotectin and lactoferrin measurement after surgery for CD. This review was conducted to assess the role of faecal calprotectin and lactoferrin measurements in patients with postoperative CD.