| Summary: | Background Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are the most common chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. Leukocytapheresis is a method aimed at ameliorating symptoms in patients with moderately severe to severe inflammatory bowel disease. Conclusions. 1. Few studies of sufficient quality address leukocytapheresis in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. No randomized studies were found on Crohn's disease. Hence, well-designed studies of sufficient size are urgently needed to determine the effectiveness of leukocytapheresis in treating inflammatory bowel disease. 2. Contradictory scientific evidence makes it impossible to establish whether the treatment results of leukocytapheresis are superior to conventional pharmacotherapy with corticosteroids or sham apheresis in treating moderately severe to severe ulcerative colitis. Studies that compare apheresis with steroid treatment suggest that the treatments yield comparable results. 3. Compared to steroid treatment, apheresis has fewer and milder adverse effects during the treatment period. Knowledge is lacking concerning the potential adverse effects of leukocytapheresis in the long term, but it is well documented that long term treatment with corticosteroids carries a substantial risk for adverse effects. 4. Apheresis treatment is more expensive than conventional pharmacotherapy. The scientific evidence is insufficient to determine the cost effectiveness of the method. Does not include treatment with so-called biological / immunomodulating drugs (e.g., infliximab)
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