A case report of surgical complications in a patient with ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Rapidly rising prevalence of ulcerative colitis in developed countries among young population compels the medical community to pay attention not only to the problems of early diagnosis and therapy of this disease, but also to preventing the development of complications, that may lead to disability. This article reviews a clinical case of the development of surgical complications in a patient with a long-term active course of ulcerative colitis, who has been also suffering from autoimmune hepatitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis for 20 years. The prolonged active course of the disease and total damage to the colon, association with primary sclerosing cholangitis, as well as the patient’s low adherence to therapy were risk factors for the development of adenocarcinoma of the ascending colon, which required radical surgical treatment. The formation of adhesive disease and multiple abdominal abscesses can be noted as long-term complications, which led to the repeated use of invasive methods of treatment. Over the next few months, the patient experienced 2 more episodes of local purulent complications that required surgical treatment due to the ineffectiveness of antibiotic therapy. All episodes of purulent complications were accompanied by progressive leukopenia due to prolonged use of immunosuppressive drugs. In our opinion, in patients with ulcerative colitis who take cytostatic agents for a long time, special attention should be paid to monitoring and correcting leukopenia, as well as preventing the development of purulent complications.

Keywords

• ulcerative colitis
• immunosuppression
• cytostatic agents
• purulent complications
• malignancy