대한대장항문학회

Behcet's disease, originally defined by recurrent oral and genital ulcers and uveitis, is<br>regarded as a multisystemic disorder that may involve various organs. Intestinal<br>involvement in Behcet's disease is characterized by ulcers which tend to perforate or<br>penetrate the intestinal wall. Thus, many patients with this disease require surgical<br>intervention. This study was performed to analyze the results of the surgical treatment<br>in patients with intestinal Behcet's disease. We have performed a retrospective analysis<br>of 30 patients with pathologically defined intestinal Behcet's disease who had undergone<br>operations at the Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital between<br>1984 and 1996. The ulcers were most frequently located in the ileocecal area(79%) and<br>46% of the patients had multiple ulcers. The mean age at the time of first operation<br>was 34 years(range: 14-58) and the mean interval from onset of symptoms to operation<br>was 22 months(range: 0.3-96). The most common indications which led to operation<br>were intractable pain (37%), followed by suspicion of malignancy(27%), obstruction(13%),<br>perforation(10%) and bleeding(10%). Surgical treatment consisted of resection of the<br>involved area in all cases except one patient who had undergone primary closure of the<br>perforated ulcer. After mean follow-up period of 55 months(range: 1-120) after the<br>primary operation, recurrence was observed in 17 cases(57%). The cumulative recurrence<br>rate was 25% at 1 year, 37.9% at 3 years, and 61.2% at 5 years. Our results indicate<br>that intestinal Behcet's disease is associated with high incidence of<br>postoperative<br>recurrence.<br>