Elective surgery outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease: interpretation at magnetic resonance enterography

Inflammatory bowel diseases include pathologic intestinal conditions of unknown etiology, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Crohn’s disease consists in a chronic transmural inflammation that can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract and whose clinical course is characterized by a fluctuation of remission and recurrences, while inflammation in ulcerative colitis involves the solely layer of colonic mucosa. Cross-sectional imaging, and especially magnetic resonance enterography, is able to provide useful information about small bowel lesions as well as intestinal and extra-intestinal complications. However, morphological changes due to surgery can significantly impair the evaluation of small and large bowel, especially considering that the majority of CD patients undergo one or more surgical operations during their lifetime. Therefore, the aim of this work is to summarize the main surgical approaches in inflammatory bowel disease patients and the consequent findings on magnetic resonance enterography.