Clinical characteristics and long-term prognosis of elderly-onset Crohn’s disease

<b>Objectives:</b> This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and clinical course of Asian elderly-onset Crohn’s disease (EOCD) patients in a large well-defined cohort of South Korean IBD patients. <b>Materials and methods:</b> From the Asan inflammatory bowel disease registry, we identified 29 EOCD patients (diagnosed with CD in age of 60 years or over) out of 2989 CD patients (1.0%). After excluding two patients with unclear data, 27 EOCD were matched with 108 young-onset CD (YOCD) and 108 middle age-onset CD (MOCD) for the interval from symptom onset to diagnosis (±3 years) and follow-up duration (±3 years). <b>Results:</b> Females were predominant in the EOCD group (59.3%) compared to MOCD (31.5%) and YOCD (29.6%) groups (<i>p</i> = .012). In EOCD group, terminal ileal location was the most common (63.0%) at diagnosis, whereas ileocolonic location in other groups (57.4% in MOCD and 78.7% in YOCD, respectively) (<i>p</i> vs. 28.7% in MOCD <i>vs.</i> 49.1% in YOCD, <i>p</i> vs. 87.0% in MOCD <i>vs.</i> 89.8% in YOCD, <i>p</i> p = .583). <b>Conclusions:</b> EOCD may have a better clinical course than MOCD and YOCD, as demonstrated by the similar risk for intestinal resection despite the less frequent use of thiopurines.