Cui M, Shi C, Yao P. Protective effect of appendectomy against the onset of ulcerative colitis: A case-control study. World J Gastrointest Surg 2024; 16(12): 3675-3684 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i12.3675]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ping Yao, MMed, Chief Physician, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, No. 137 Liyushan Road, Urumqi 830000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. pingyaozh@xjmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Control Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Dec 27, 2024; 16(12): 3675-3684 Published online Dec 27, 2024. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i12.3675
Protective effect of appendectomy against the onset of ulcerative colitis: A case-control study
Min Cui, Chen Shi, Ping Yao
Min Cui, Ping Yao, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Chen Shi, The First Clinical Medical College, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Co-first authors: Min Cui and Chen Shi.
Author contributions: Cui M performed the majority of study and wrote the manuscript; Yao P designed the study and corrected the manuscript; Shi C participated to the collection of the human material and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82460110.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee review of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University (Approval No. K202303-20).
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: Dataset available from the corresponding author at pingyaozh@xjmu.edu.cn.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ping Yao, MMed, Chief Physician, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, No. 137 Liyushan Road, Urumqi 830000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. pingyaozh@xjmu.edu.cn
Received: April 11, 2024 Revised: September 18, 2024 Accepted: October 18, 2024 Published online: December 27, 2024 Processing time: 230 Days and 5.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Previous studies suggest that appendectomy has a protective effect against ulcerative colitis (UC); however, relatively few studies focusing on this topic have been reported in China.
AIM
To explore the correlation between appendectomy and the onset of UC.
METHODS
A total of 313 patients with newly diagnosed UC and 313 healthy individuals were selected for this study. According to whether their appendix was removed before the diagnosis of UC, patients were divided into appendectomized and non-appendectomized groups. Their general clinical data, appendectomy history, disease severity, extent of involvement, and blood routine test results were collected to evaluate the relationship between appendectomy and the onset of UC.
RESULTS
The study revealed that the average time interval for the diagnosis of UC after appendectomy was 14.72 ± 13.87 years. 55.81% patients were diagnosed with UC five years after appendectomy. Among them, eight patients underwent appendectomy before the age of 20 years and were diagnosed with UC five years later. In the appendectomized group, the onset age of UC was higher, and the degree of disease activity was significantly lower. This group had a higher proportion of patients in clinical remission or with mild disease and a lower proportion of patients with severe disease. The extent of lesions in the appendectomized group was limited, with a higher proportion of E1 and E2, whereas a lower proportion of E3 lesions.
CONCLUSION
Appendectomy may delay the onset of UC, reduce disease severity, and lessen the scope of involvement.
Core Tip: Our study found that appendectomy may delay the onset of ulcerative colitis (UC), reduce disease severity, and lessen the scope of involvement. This study provided evidence that appendectomy plays an important role in the occurrence and development of UC. A further prospective randomized trial evaluating the improvement of appendectomy on the disease course of UC may be feasible.
