Background and Aims
Inflammation of the pouch after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) can significantly impact quality of life and be difficult to treat. We assessed the effectiveness and safety of vedolizumab in Crohn’s disease (CD) of the pouch and chronic antibiotic-dependent or antibiotic-refractory pouchitis.
Methods
This was a retrospective, multicenter cohort study at 5 academic referral centers in the United States. Adult patients with endoscopic inflammation of the pouch who received vedolizumab were included. The primary outcome was clinical response at any time point. Secondary outcomes included clinical remission, endoscopic response, and remission. Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were performed for the effect of the following variables on clinical response: fistula, onset of pouchitis less than 1 year after IPAA, younger than 35 years old, gender, previous tumor necrosis factor inhibitor-alpha use, and BMI >30.
Results
Eighty-three patients were treated with vedolizumab for inflammation of the pouch between January 2014 and October 2017. Median follow-up was 1.3 years (interquartile range 0.7–2.1). The proportion of patients that achieved at least a clinical response was 71.1%, with 19.3% achieving clinical remission. Of the 74 patients with a follow-up pouchoscopy, the proportion of patients with endoscopic response and mucosal healing was 54.1% and 17.6%, respectively. Patients who developed pouchitis symptoms less than 1 year after undergoing IPAA were less likely to respond to vedolizumab, even after controlling for other risk factors.
Conclusions
Vedolizumab is safe and effective in the management of CD of the pouch and chronic pouchitis. Further studies are needed to compare vedolizumab with other biologic therapies for pouchitis and CD of the pouch.
A 62-year-old man presented with 2 weeks of progressive dyspnea and chest pain. He was previously diagnosed with high-grade invasive urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder and underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy 10 months earlier, resulting in pathologic complete remission. Clinical evaluation and echocardiographic imaging was consistent with a diagnosis of cardiac tamponade. Due to a history of malignancy, the patient was referred for a surgical pericardial window, to include biopsy of the pericardium. Pericardial fluid and pericardial biopsy specimens were consistent with metastatic UC. Cardiac tamponade due to metastatic UC is a rare presentation, and, to our knowledge, there have been only 5 cases reported in the English literature. We report a rare case of cardiac tamponade due to isolated pericardial metastases from high grade UC of the bladder and discuss the symptoms, treatment, and prognosis of this pathologic condition. We also present a brief review of previously published literature. Through this discussion, we would like to emphasize the (1) consideration of cardiac metastases in the differential diagnosis for patients with a history of UC presenting with cardiac or pulmonary symptoms and (2) improved diagnostics with pericardial biopsy and pericardiocentesis over pericardiocentesis alone.
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