Intracorporeal Versus Extracorporeal Anastomosis in Minimally Invasive Ileocecectomy or Ileocolic Resection for Crohn's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

What To Know

This article reports a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing intracorporeal anastomosis (ICA) versus extracorporeal anastomosis (ECA) in minimally invasive ileocecectomy or ileocolic resection for Crohn’s disease.

The review pooled data from four retrospective cohort studies totaling 672 patients and found that ICA was associated with fewer overall postoperative complications than ECA, while rates of anastomotic leak, surgical-site infection, readmission, length of stay, and disease recurrence were similar. Operative time was longer with ICA.

The source material provided here is an abstract-level synthesis (structured content depth: abstract) of the published review. It summarizes pooled outcomes and reports risk-of-bias and GRADE assessments were performed, but the extracted text is an abstract rather than the full methods and results sections.

That means we can report the review’s main conclusions but cannot verify detailed study-by-study data, subgroup analyses, or study quality assessments beyond what the abstract states.

If you are a patient considering surgery, this review suggests ICA may reduce overall postoperative complications compared with ECA in minimally invasive right-sided resections for Crohn’s disease, but it also notes longer operative time.

Discuss with your surgeon whether ICA is offered at your center and how surgeon experience, individual anatomy, and disease severity might influence the choice of technique.