Patients with the chronic ulcerative colitis might reduce their risk of a relapse by having appendectomy (appendix removal), a new study suggests.
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) that causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of your large intestine, including your colon and rectum. There is no cure for this, but right medications can help control the symptoms. However, a relapse can adversely affect quality of life.
The study, published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal, reported that the appendix plays a role by producing inflammatory proteins that stimulate the body to launch a series of immune responses.
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The study examined 197 people, half of whom underwent appendectomy surgery. A year later, the relapse rates were 36% in the appendectomy group and 56% in the usual-care group, the researchers said. The results also showed that the number of patients in the appendectomy group who subsequently developed a more severe form of the disease requiring treatment with biological agents decreased. After accounting for patients’ individual risk factors, the odds of relapse during the study were 35% lower with appendectomy.
“This significant… reduction suggests that appendectomy might be a viable additional therapeutic option for maintaining remission in ulcerative colitis,” the researchers wrote. “Furthermore, patients who underwent appendectomy were significantly more likely to maintain lower disease activity, reduce the initiation of biological agents, and improve health-related quality of life compared with patients who received standard medical therapy alone.”
A separate trial is underway to test the benefit of appendectomy in patients whose ulcerative colitis is not in remission.
