Purpose: The aim of the study was to calculate the cumulative occurrence of pouch failure among 486 patients who had undergone proctocolectomy and ileoanal anastomosis for ulcerative colitis or familial adenomatous polyposis. The other goal was to compare the quality of life in the failure group of 21 patients, the successful group, and the healthy population.
Methods: Data were collected from patient histories, with the probability of pouch failure being calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Patients with pouch failure and controls were sent a Short-Form 36-item quality-of-life questionnaire, and data were analyzed with paired -test.
Results: The overall failure rate was 5.3 percent (26), including 24 pouch excisions and 2 early deaths (0.4 percent). Cumulative probabilities of pouch failure were 1, 5, and 7 percent at 1, 5, and 10 years, respectively. Neither pouchitis, gender, nor diagnosis correlated with pouch failure, but fistula formation ( p< 0.001) did. Patients with failure had lower quality-of-life scores for physical function (p < 0.02), social function ( p< 0.04), energy ( p< 0.02), and physical role function ( < 0.03) than the healthy population. Scores for physical function ( p< 0.01), energy ( p< 0.01), and physical role function ( p< 0.05) were also lower than those of control patients.
Conclusions: The most common cause of pouch failure is fistula, whereas pouch excision is rarely caused by pouchitis. The impaired quality of life of patients in the failure group was caused by impairment of physical function and restrictions in social life.