Crohn's disease is a panintestinal disease of unknown aetiology and a tendency to recrudescence throughout the patient's life. It is therefore impossible to cure Crohn's disease by medical therapy or surgical excision. In spite of this, the majority of patients can be managed through their disease and maintained in a good state of health by a combination of medical and surgical treatment. Early attempts at surgical management of Crohn's disease in the 1930's and 1940's involved bypass procedures which were marred with serious complications of sepsis, development of cancer and increased rate of recurrence. By the 1950's resection became the preferred operation but there soon arose a controversy about the amount of bowel that should be removed. There were some who advocated radical excision; removing all diseased bowel with a large margin of apparently normal tissue on each side of the resection. Others found less radical resection safer as it preserved gut and also had no apparent effect on the rate of recurrence of the disease. Although this argument continued, the balance gradually shifted towards less radical surgery. Furthermore, the wave of conservatism led to the evolution of the concept of minimal surgery.

This review outlines the past year's significant advances in surgical techniques including a new technique of sutureless intestinal anastomosis. Studies comparing ileal pouches are reviewed. New findings concerning ileal pouch-anal anastomosis including ileak brake and outcome for indeterminant colitis are discussed. Two studies on enterocutaneous reflux and gastric emptying after vagotomy and Roux-en-Y gastrectomy are mentioned. Surgery for small-bowel malignant tumors and gastrointestinal lymphoma is also covered, and a description of new methods for the treatment of postoperative intestinal adhesions completes the review.

We report an audit of outcome on 24 patients (16 females) who had a strictureplasty to treat ileo-colic anastomotic strictures. All except one patient had their original resection for Crohn's disease, and required reoperation because of symptoms of recurrent intestinal obstruction for a mean 9.3 months (range 1-36); the remaining patient was discovered to have ileo-colic anastomotic stricture before he underwent laparotomy for closure of loop ileostomy. At operation, four patients needed additional small bowel strictureplasties, two of whom also underwent small bowel resection for separate areas of phlegmonous disease. There was no post-operative mortality, three patients developed wound infection and one had a pelvic abscess, which settled on antibiotic therapy. Two patients have since died of unrelated disease. Five patients have since needed reoperation for recurrence; only one had a stricture at the site of previous strictureplasty. Over a mean follow-up of 70.8 months (range 18-393) all 22 living patients now have complete relief of symptoms.