Ulcerative Colitis: Should Mucosal Healing Be the Goal?

Patients with ulcerative colitis have traditionally been treated to the point of clinical remission. Increasingly, however, they are receiving treatment to the point of healing, which seems to improve the likelihood of long-term remission. In a 25-year prospective observational study performed in Italy, researchers compared outcomes between patients with clinical remission who did or did not achieve endoscopic remission. The analysis involved 157 patients with a first diagnosis of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis who received systemic steroid therapy within 12 months of diagnosis.

Information collected at baseline included sex, family history of inflammatory bowel disease, smoking habits, previous appendectomy, age at disease onset, dis…