Epidemiological evolution of epidemiology of the inflammatory bowel diseases in a hospital of Tunis.

BACKGROUND The epidemiological studies showed that the incidence of the inflammatory bowel diseases describes a gradient North-South. Besides, concerning the evolution according to the time,recent studies noted an increase of the incidence of the Crohn's disease at the expense of the one of the ulcerative colitis. AIM To determine the evolution of the epidemiology of the inflammatory bowel diseases across the time. METHODS The study included inpatients followed for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and indeterminate colitis, in the department of gastroenterology of Habib Thameur hospital. For every patient were collected the sex, the age and the year of the diagnosis, the type of inflammatory bowel disease and the initial location. We compared the evolution of the frequency of the inflammatory bowel diseases,them type and their initial location according to 5 periods of 3 years. RESULTS During this period, 202 cases of inflammatory bowel disease were diagnosed (55,5% of Crohn's disease, 41,5% of ulcerative colitis, 6% of indeterminate colitis). For the first period,we noted 21 cases of inflammatory bowel disease, for the 5th period, we noted 43 cases. The frequency of the Crohn's disease passed from 8 cases in the 1st period to 23 cases in the 5th one. The frequency of the ulcerative colitis passed from 12 cases in the 1st period to 17 cases in the 5th one. The number of indeterminate colitis was 1 in the 1st period and 3 in the 5th one. These differences did not been significant. The distribution of initial locations of the Crohn's disease and the ulcerative colitis increased in a proportional manner for each period. The average age to the diagnosis was 32 years in the 1st period and 35 years in the 5th period and comparable whatever the inflammatory bowel disease type. CONCLUSION Although we cannot amount the exact incidence, we noted an increase of the frequency of the inflammatory bowel diseases, with a more marked elevation for the Crohn's disease.