[Transfer of care of adolescent inflammatory bowel disease patients without longitudinal transition. Lesson from 10 years experiences].

Introduction: Transfer is a planned movement of patients and their medical records from one provider to another. Only a few data are available from real life in inflammatory bowel disease patients in this topic. Aim: Our aim was to retrospectively evaluate the results of the transfer of our patients without longitudinal transition. Method: Data of the transferred patients at the University of Szeged were analysed. Patients were diagnosed in paediatric care. Transfer strategy at our departments was detailed medical summary. Results: 59 patients were enrolled in this study. 28.8% of the patients had mild to moderate disease activity and 71.2% was in remission at the time of transfer. Steroid therapy was initiated in 58% of the patients within an average of 9.1 months after the transfer. Anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy was given to 24% of the patients during the paediatric care and to an additional 23% in the adult care within an average of 28 months. Almost 70% of the patients received immunosuppressive therapy during paediatric and adult care. Surgery was required in 17% of the patients within an average 10.7 months after the transfer. Conclusion: Our results revealed that one-third of the paediatric patients have been transferred to adult care in active stage of disease. Shortly after the transfer 58% of the patients required corticosteroids and 17% surgery. Every fifth patient needed biological therapy to be initiated after the transfer. Longitudinal transition may have a potential to decrease the need for therapeutic change and the relatively high rate of surgery.