Influence of Systematic AA Amyloidosis Complicating Crohn's Disease after Surgery

Systematic AA amyloidosis is a rare complication in Crohn's disease, and there have been few reports of this severe complication in Japan. Recently the number of Crohn's disease cases has been increasing, so we anticipate that cases of Crohn's disease complicated with amyloidosis will increase in Japan as well as in Western countries in the near future. Therefore, it is very important to become aware of the background, complications after operation and prognosis of amyloidosis in Crohn's disease. We performed a retrospective review of patients with Crohn's disease complicated with AA amyloidosis who had undergone surgical intestinal resection at our hospital between 1982 and 2004. We demonstrated AA amyloidosis by congo-red staining of resected specimens. Of 94 patients, 5 had amyloidosis. We compared patients with and without amyloidosis. Those with amyloidosis tended to have liver dysfunction, pancreatitis and gastro-intestinal bleeding after the operation. Thus, we should treat post-operative patients with amyloidosis with great care to prevent severe complications.