Inflammatory Bowel Disease
What is Inflammatory bowel disease?
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (which is different than irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS) refers to two chronic diseases that cause inflammation of the intestines: ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Although the diseases have some features in common, there are some important differences.
The term inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) covers a group of disorders in which the intestines become inflamed (red and swollen), probably as a result of an immune reaction of the body against its own intestinal tissue.
Two major types of IBD are described: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). As the name suggests, ulcerative colitis is limited to the colon (large intestine). Although Crohn’s disease can involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus, it most commonly affects the small intestine and/or the colon.
Symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Because inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic disease (lasting a long time), you will go through periods in which the disease flares up and causes symptoms. These periods are followed by remission, in which symptoms disappear or decrease and good health returns.
Symptoms may range from mild to severe and generally depend upon the part of the intestinal tract involved. They include the following:
Stomach Aches Caused by IBD
- Abdominal cramps and pain
- Bloody diarrhea
- Severe urgency to have a bowel movement
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Anemia (due to blood loss)
Intestinal complications of inflammatory bowel disease include the following:
- Profuse bleeding from the ulcers
- Perforation (rupture) of the bowel
- Strictures and obstruction: In persons with Crohn’s disease, strictures often are inflammatory and frequently resolve with medical treatment. Fixed or fibrotic (scarring) strictures may require endoscopic or surgical intervention to relieve the obstruction. In ulcerative colitis, colonic strictures should be presumed to be malignant (cancerous).
- Fistulae (abnormal passage) and perianal disease: These are more common in persons with Crohn’s disease. They may not respond to vigorous medical treatment. Surgical intervention often is required, and there is a high risk of recurrence.
- Toxic megacolon (acute nonobstructive dilation of the colon): This is a life-threatening complication of ulcerative colitis and requires urgent surgical intervention. It is fortunately relatively rare.
- Malignancy: The risk of colon cancer in ulcerative colitis begins to rise significantly above that of the general population after approximately 8-10 years of diagnosis. The risk of cancer in Crohn’s disease may equal that of ulcerative colitis if the entire colon is involved. The risk of small intestine malignancy is increased in Crohn’s disease.
Extraintestinal complications
- Extraintestinal involvement of IBD refers to complications involving organs other than the intestines. These affect only a small percentage of people with IBD.
- Persons with IBD may have arthritis, skin conditions, inflammation of the eye, liver and kidney disorders, and bone loss. Of all the extraintestinal complications, arthritis is the most common. Joint, eye, and skin complications often occur together.
How is inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed?
Different people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) suffer different symptoms. Based on your particular symptoms, your doctor may suspect that you have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Your bowel movements may be tested for germs and the presence of blood. Your doctor will probably look inside your intestines with a sigmoidoscope or a colonoscope. In these procedures, the doctor uses a narrow flexible tube to look directly inside your intestines. Special x-rays may be helpful in diagnosing this illness.
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