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World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2016; 8(9): 598-605
Published online Sep 27, 2016. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v8.i9.598
Update on medical and surgical options for patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis: What is new?
Rachel E Andrew, Evangelos Messaris
Rachel E Andrew, Evangelos Messaris, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033-0850, United States
Author contributions: Andrew RE acquired and analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript; Andrew RE and Messaris E designed the study, interpreted the data and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Messaris E supervised the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Rachel E Andrew, MD, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, the Pennsylvania State University, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033-0850, United States. randrew@hmc.psu.edu
Telephone: +1-717-5315164 Fax: +1-717-5310646
Received: March 29, 2016
Peer-review started: April 5, 2016
First decision: May 23, 2016
Revised: July 14, 2016
Accepted: July 29, 2016
Article in press: August 1, 2016
Published online: September 27, 2016
Processing time: 180 Days and 5.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The numerous avenues of medical and surgical therapy have allowed for great advances in the treatment of patients with ulcerative colitis. In this era of options, it is important to maintain a global view, utilize corticosteroids and rescue therapy when indicated, and then maintain an appropriate threshold for surgery. Colectomy remains a viable and often life-saving treatment and should not be viewed as the “therapy of last resort”.