Strategies for early diagnosis of perianal Crohn's disease

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic (inflammatory bowel) disease (IBD) with high impact on the lives of mostly young patients. In daily clinical practice, it may be challenging to identify patients at risk of having CD at an early stage, especially when they present with perianal disease as manifesting sign. Although it is assumed that a prolonged time to diagnosis results in worse outcomes, data illustrating a direct correlation between time to diagnosis of CD and outcomes were currently lacking. This thesis entitled “Strategies for early diagnosis of perianal Crohn’s disease” elaborates on the real effect of a prolonged time to Crohn’s disease diagnosis in patients presenting with perianal disease on patient outcomes, and it was aimed to contribute to the development of strategies for early diagnosis of Crohn’s disease in patients presenting with perianal disease. Also, an overview of the environmental impact of common surgeries in IBD, including strategies to reduce carbon emission rates, was provided.