SUMMARY

Surgical resection is almost inevitable in Crohn’s disease. Surgery is usually performed for refractory or complicated disease: no studies appear to have been carried out, so far, to evaluate the potential bene-fits of performing surgery early in the course of the disease. Aim To compare the long-term course of Crohn’s disease following ileo-cae-cal resection performed at the time of diagnosis (early surgery) or dur-ing the course of the disease (late surgery). Patients and methods Overall 207 patients with ileo-caecal Crohn’s disease at their first resec-tion were reviewed: 83 patients underwent surgery at the time of diag-nosis (early surgery), while 124 underwent surgery 54.2 months (range 1–438) after diagnosis (late surgery). The mean follow-up after surgery was 147 months (range 12–534). The primary endpoint was clinical recurrence, defined as need for corticosteroids for symptomatic diseas