Ciorba, Matthew A.

Abstract Background and Aims Inflammation of the pouch after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) can significantly impact quality of life and be difficult to treat. We assessed the effectiveness and safety of vedolizumab in Crohn’s disease (CD) of the pouch and chronic antibiotic-dependent or antibiotic-refractory pouchitis. Methods This was a retrospective, multicenter cohort study at 5 academic referral centers in the United States. Adult patients with endoscopic inflammation of the pouch who received vedolizumab were included. The primary outcome was clinical response at any time point. Secondary outcomes included clinical remission, endoscopic response, and remission. Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were performed for the effect of the following variables on clinical response: fistula, onset of pouchitis less than 1 year after IPAA, younger than 35 years old, gender, previous tumor necrosis factor inhibitor-alpha use, and BMI >30. Results Eighty-three patients were treated with vedolizumab for inflammation of the pouch between January 2014 and October 2017. Median follow-up was 1.3 years (interquartile range 0.7–2.1). The proportion of patients that achieved at least a clinical response was 71.1%, with 19.3% achieving clinical remission. Of the 74 patients with a follow-up pouchoscopy, the proportion of patients with endoscopic response and mucosal healing was 54.1% and 17.6%, respectively. Patients who developed pouchitis symptoms less than 1 year after undergoing IPAA were less likely to respond to vedolizumab, even after controlling for other risk factors. Conclusions Vedolizumab is safe and effective in the management of CD of the pouch and chronic pouchitis. Further studies are needed to compare vedolizumab with other biologic therapies for pouchitis and CD of the pouch.

Abstract Electronic medical records (EMRs) have gained widespread use in clinical practice and by default serve as a large patient database with potential for use in clinical research. Although there remains significant interest in leveraging EMRs for research purposes, extraction of data has proven to be complex and with insufficient accuracy. We describe the limitations of an EMR in our attempt to conduct a seemingly simple study aimed at validating variables identified in the PRECiSE 3, a 7-year open label safety and efficacy study of certolizumab pegol in Crohn’s disease that identified clinical factors that predicted both short- and long-term efficacy. A multicenter, retrospective cohort study from 8 academic and large community practices was performed, and data were collected from each respective EMR. Significant challenges with reliable capture of key data elements were encountered, and overall a screen fail rate of 91.8% across all sites was seen. We describe these challenges and potential future directions to work together to advance accuracy and implementation of the use of EMRs in inflammatory bowel disease.