Abstract

The goal of this consensus initiated by the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) was to establish European consensus guidelines for the surgical treatment of ulcerative colitis. The strategy to reach the consensus involved several steps and follows the standard operating procedures for consensus guidelines of ECCO. An open call for chairs and participants for this consensus was made (see acknowledgements and www.ecco-ibd). Participants were selected by the Guidelines' Committee of ECCO (GuiCom) on the basis of their publication record and a personal statement. Four working groups (WGs) were formed: WG 1 on the preoperative phase, WG 2 on the intraoperative phase, WG 3 on the postoperative phase and WG 4 on special situations. Participants were asked to answer relevant questions on current practice and areas of controversy related to the surgical treatment of ulcerative colitis based on their experience as well as evidence from the literature (Delphi procedure).1 In parallel, the WG members performed a systematic literature search of their topic with the appropriate key words using Medline/PubMed/ISI/Scopus and the Cochrane database, as well as their own files. Provisional guideline statements (with supporting text) were then written by the WG chairs based upon answers to the questionnaire and were circulated among the WG members, prompting discussions and exchange of literature evidence. The proposed statements and the supporting text were submitted to an online platform for online discussion and two online voting procedures among all Consensus participants for the first voting procedure and also for all national representatives of ECCO for the second voting procedure. The WGs finally met in Belgrade on September 25th 2013 for a final face-to-face discussion and to vote and consent on the statements. Technically this was done by projecting the statements and revising them on screen until a consensus was reached. Consensus was defined …