Intestinal resection rates in Crohn’s disease decline across two different epidemiological areas: a consistent observation not merely due to introduction of anti-TNFα

With great interest we have read the manuscript written by Murthy et al , published in Gut in June 2019, on the influence of anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) therapy introduction on the rate of hospitalisation and intestinal resection rates in IBD.1 Despite the difference in the source of data between both studies (Canada: health administrative data and the Netherlands: nationwide pathology database), a declining rate of intestinal resections in Crohn’s disease has been confirmed in Canada, at equal rates as the decline that has been observed in the Netherlands.2 The authors used an advanced statistical method to …