De novo inflammatory bowel diseases after liver transplantation: description of four new cases and a review of the literature

• Published in: Gastroentérologie clinique et biologique Vol. 30; no. 8-9; pp. 1096 - 1101
• Main Authors: Vu, Francis, Maillard, Michel, Pascual, Manuel, Michetti, Pierre, Felley, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: France 01-08-2006
• Subjects: Adult; Female; Humans; Immunosuppression; Immunosuppressive Agents - adverse effects; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - diagnosis; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - etiology; Liver Transplantation - adverse effects; Male
• ISSN: 0399-8320
• DOI: 10.1016/S0399-8320(06)73484-4

Inflammatory bowel diseases are a result of an aberrant mucosal immune response to gut microflora. Several groups have reported newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel diseases following solid organ transplantation and subsequent immunosuppressive therapy. We describe four cases of newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel diseases following liver transplantation in a pool of 120 transplanted patients. These patients had no prior history of inflammatory bowel diseases or primary sclerosing cholangitis and were immunosuppressed. Two patients were transplanted for a hepatitis C related cirrhosis, one for alcoholic cirrhosis and one patient for autoimmune cirrhosis. Three patients were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and one with Crohn's disease. These four patients were on a cyclosporin monotherapy when their inflammatory bowel diseases were diagnosed. These data suggest that cyclosporin monotherapy following solid organ transplantation does not prevent development of inflammatory bowel diseases.