Pandemic-related delays in endoscopic monitoring may not worsen inflammatory bowel disease outcomes, at least in the short term, according to research presented at the 2022 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been terrible, but it’s also presented us with a natural study design to see what happens if we disrupt the regular follow-up for IBD patients, which is, of course, not something we can do normally,” senior investigator Vitaliy Poylin, MD, an associate professor of gastrointestinal surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, told Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News.