How likely is Crohn’s disease after a J Pouch

People who have IBD sometimes get treatment with J pouch surgery, where they have their colon partially or fully removed, and replaced with a pouch that’s attached to the anus. 

J pouch surgery is normally done for those with UC who struggle with this, but usually, it isn’t done for Crohn’s in particular.  That’s because they use the ileum for this, and it might become inflamed, to the point of pouch failure, and you might need an ileostomy to fix this, impacting your life quality. 

When Chron’s Gets Found 

In a few instances, those who are dealing with ulcerative colitis eventually are found to have Crohn’s, and usually, it can happen after they get a J pouch., albeit not common. The patients with Crohn’s disease may deal with this from the onset, even though tis was not part of your original diagnosis. Part of this because Crohn’s disease usually affects your large intestine, and the diagnosis may change over time. 

How common is Diagnosis? 

Because there are multiple surgeries for J pouches, there is always that concern of Crohn’s disease in a lot of cases. But it actually can be as low as about 1% to as high as about 13% in some cases, and usually, this isn’t as high as others expect it to be. Most of them is about 10% or lower in a lot of cases. Right now, the percentage is near 5%, but that’s because they can diagnose this before the IBD surgery in order to make sure that you get found. 

Is there a Way to Predict it? 

You may wonder if there is a way to predict it. Right now, there isn’t at the moment, but there is one study that shows patients who had ulcerative colitis at a younger age may have complications and have a Crohn’s disease diagnosis later on down the line, usually after they have a J pouch surgery. 

For young patients, it is actually more common to have “pouch failure” and eventually getting it removed, especially if there is a Crohn’s disease diagnosis later on. However, those who can have their pouch still will find that it does function well, and there is a difference in your quality of life between those who dealt with the surgery and those with ulcerative colitis still. 

So at the end of the day, it is something that could happen, but if your doctor takes care of the problem and gives the proper prognosis later on, you’ll be able to make sure that the IBD does improve over time, and usually, with the way surgeries are done, unless you’re young or have complications from surgery, you probably don’t have to worry about this. 

But that doesn’t’ mean you shouldn’t talk to the gastroenterologist, or your colorectal surgeon before this is completed, since it is important especially those who are young and have these kinds of complications. Usually, patients ask the surgeons before they start the amount of surgeries that they’ve had, and how many have ended up with a rediagnosis over time. 

But you should, even if the answer isn’t’ what you want to hear, fret be cause this actually isn’t as common as one may thing, and the cool thing about this is that over time, this is starting to improve as time goes on, and you’ll be able to, with this as well, improve your life, and the chances for this developing when you have IBD is starting to get less and less common, and it definitely does need to be talked about a little.