%0 Journal Article
%A Núñez Ortiz, Andrea
%A Trigo Salado, Claudio
%A de la Cruz Ramírez, María Dolores
%A Márquez Galán, José Luis
%A Herrera Justiniano, José Manuel
%A Leo Carnerero, Eduardo
%T Megacolon in inflammatory bowel disease: response to infliximab.
%D 2020
%@ 1130-0108
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10668/14976
%X Megacolon is a serious complication of inflammatory bowel disease that often requires a colectomy. Infliximab is a therapeutic alternative when conventional treatment fails, before resorting to surgery. Its use is currently based on the publication of isolated cases. We present a series of 12 patients with megacolon treated with infliximab, five with signs of systemic toxicity. Seventy-five percent of the patients avoided a colectomy during their acute episode after early infliximab treatment, 2.45 days after the megacolon diagnosis. There was a greater risk of surgery among patients with ulcerative colitis and toxicity criteria. Two more patients required follow-up surgery despite long-term infliximab treatment. No patient suffered significant treatment-related adverse effects or significant post-surgery complications.
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