Free perforation in Crohn's disease: I. A survey of 99 cases.

A review of more than 181 reported cases of free perforation in Crohn's disease yielded 84 cases that fulfilled rigorous criteria for classification as spontaneous free perforation with generalized peritonitis. An additional 15 cases from The Mount Sinai Hospital, derived from a population of 1010 patients with Crohn's disease, bring the total number to 99. Separately tabulated are 116 other cases either occurring in bypassed segments, developing after surgery, presenting with ruptured abscesses, or not definitively documented. Most reported perforations in the literature occurred in the distal small bowel. Among the Crohn's disease patients in our hospital, however, the incidence of colonic and small bowel perforation were 1.6 and 0.7%, respectively, with the highest frequency actually occurring in diseased segments of jejunum (2/50 = 4%). Free perforation was the presenting manifestation of the disease in 25 of the 84 reported cases. In our 15 patients, although perforation was never the presenting manifestation, it tended to occur early in the course of the disease (mean 3.5 years from onset of symptoms). Ninety-six of the 99 cases were operated on. The three patients treated without surgery all died. Mortality was most frequent following simple suture in the earliest reported case (39%), but considerably less frequent after resection and anastomosis (3.7%). All 18 patients treated by resection and diversion survived. Immediate surgery with resection and/or diversion therefore appears to be appropriate treatment for free perforation in Crohn's disease.