Potentially avoidable surgery in inflammatory bowel disease: what proportion of patients come to resection without optimal preoperative therapy? A guidelines-based audit.

Over 50% of IBD resection patients had suboptimal preoperative management, with sub-therapeutic thiopurine dosing and smoking in CD the main problems. Thus, there are significant gains to be made with better use of standard therapies, as it appears that ∼50% of resection surgery was 'potentially avoidable'.