Wound Healing of Metastatic Perineal Crohn's Disease Using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: A Case Series

Background: Metastatic Crohn's disease (CD) is a rare manifestation of CD. It involves inflammatory skin lesions with histopathological findings (granulomas) similar to CD, without connection to the gastrointestinal tract. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) has been suggested as a possible treatment option.

Objective: This study aimed to identify and treat a consecutive series of patients with biopsy-proven metastatic CD and monitor wound healing using prospectively acquired outcomes.

Methods: Pathology results of all patients with ongoing perineal wound-healing problems after proctectomy between 2005 and 2018 at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre were assessed for metastatic CD. Patients with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of perineal metastatic CD were offered HBO (40 daily sessions of 100% oxygen at 2.4 atmosphere absolute). Wound healing was monitored using photographs and standardised questionnaires (the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, EuroQol Visual Analogue Scale and the Female Sexual Function Index) at baseline and 1 and 3 months after HBO.

Results: Out of 13 patients in the cohort with persisting perineal wounds after proctectomy, six (46%) had biopsy results consistent with metastatic CD. Of these, three accepted treatment with HBO. All three patients were female. One patient had complete healing of her perineal wound; another patient showed initial improvement but had a flare of luminal and perineal disease at the 3-month follow-up. The third patient showed improvement solely in the questionnaires, with higher scores on all three questionnaires.

Conclusion: A high rate of metastatic CD was found in patients with ongoing wound-healing problems after proctectomy, implying that the disease might not be as rare in these selected patients as previously thought. HBO might be beneficial in the treatment of metastatic CD.