Elderly onset Crohn's disease: Clinical and therapeutic features

Crohn's disease (CD) is a pathology that typically affects young people. With the aging of the population, there is an increase of its incidence in the elderly. Several studies have compared the clinical and therapeutic features of the CD in the elderly and young patients with discordant results. The objective of this work was to identify the clinical and therapeutic characteristics of elderly onset CD. The clinical presentation of CD in the elderly has some peculiarities. It seems that the disease has a less severe profile. The ileal and colic locations as well as the inflammatory phenotype are the most frequent. The treatment of elderly patients poses a real challenge to the clinician because of the field particularity and the lack of large-scale data in the literature. The frequency of comorbidities and polymedications is at the origin of the lower prescription of immunomodulators and biotherapies and the frequency of postoperative complications and immunosuppressive treatments.