Incidence rates and disease course of paediatric inflammatory bowel diseases in Western Hungary between 1977 and 2011

BackgroundLimited data are available on paediatric inflammatory bowel diseases in Eastern Europe. Our aim was to analyse disease characteristics in the population-based Veszprem province database between 1977 and 2011.Methods187 (10.5%, ulcerative colitis/Crohn's disease/undetermined colitis: 88/95/4) out of 1565 incident patients were diagnosed with a paediatric onset in this population-based prospective inception cohort.ResultsThe incidence of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis increased from 0 and 0.7 in 1977–1981 to 7.2 and 5.2 in 2007–2011 per 100,000 person years. Ileocolonic location (45%) and inflammatory disease behaviour (61%) were most frequent in Crohn's disease, while azathioprine use was frequent (66%) and surgical resection rates were high (33% at 5 years) in cases with paediatric onset. In ulcerative colitis, 34% of patients were diagnosed with extensive disease, with high rates of disease extension (26% and 41% at 5 and 10 years), fulminant episodes (19.3%) and systemic steroid use (52.3%). The cumulative rate of colectomy was low (6.9%).ConclusionsThe incidence of paediatric inflammatory bowel diseases has rapidly increased in the last three decades in Western Hungary. Ileocolonic disease and a need for azathioprine were characteristic in paediatric Crohn's disease, while paediatric onset ulcerative colitis was characterised by extensive disease and disease extension, while the need for colectomy was low.