What is Crohns Disease?

This swollen lining usually is affected with ulcers which can be incapacitating and painful, leading to abdominal pain, serious diarrhea and sometimes malnutrition.

While there's no known cure for Crohns disease, with certain therapies, many people with Crohns disease are able to function well. Therapies can greatly reduce the signs and symptoms of Crohns disease and even bring about long-term remission.

Symptoms

Common symptoms of Crohns disease include:

• Crampy abdominal (belly area) pain
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Pain with passing stool (tenesmus)
• Persistent, watery diarrhea
• Unintentional weight loss
  

Other symptoms may include:

• Constipation
• Eye inflammation
• Fistulas (usually around the rectal area, may cause draining of pus, mucus, or stools)
• Joint pain
• Liver inflammation
• Mouth ulcers
• Rectal bleeding and bloody stools
• Skin rash
• Swollen gums

The symptoms of Crohns disease are dependent on the location, the extent, and the severity of the inflammation.

Treatment

The main goal in treating Crohns disease is to reduce the inflammation in the intestine and prevent flare-ups, thus reducing the symptoms, and increasing the relief, of the disease.

Treatment for Crohns disease may involve diet and lifestyle changes, drug therapy or surgery. Because everybody responds to medication differently, it may take trials of different medications to find one that works and whose side effects are minimal.

MEDICATIONS

Medications for treating Crohns disease include:

Antiinflammatory agents:

• 5-ASA compounds
• Corticosteroids
• Topical antibiotics

Anti-inflammatory drugs are often the first step in the treatment. They may include: Corticosteroids, Sulfasalazine (Azulfidine), or Mesalamine (Asacol, Rowasa). To keep Crohns disease in remission, an ongoing treatment is designed so that a medicine, or combination of medicines, will keep Crohns disease in remission.

Surgery can provide temporary relief by removing damaged portions of your digestive tract, closing fistulas, or removing any scar tissue. 3 out of 4 people with Crohns disease will require some type of surgery and approximately 50% will need more than one surgery.

Causes

Studies to determine the cause of Crohns disease point to an abnormal response by the body's malfunctioning immune system to normal intestinal bacteria, however, there is no convincing evidence that the disease is caused by infection. The digestive tract becomes inflamed when the immune system tries to fight off an invading microorganism. Disease-causing bacteria, viruses and heredity also may play a role in causing the condition. Exposure to something environmental may trigger an immune reaction as well.

Tests & Diagnosis

Colon cancer, diverticulitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have similar symptoms and are considered during testing for Crohns disease.

Several tests such as:

• blood tests
• a fecal occult blood test (FOBT)
• a colonoscopy
• a flexible sigmoidoscopy
• a barium enema
• a small bowel image test
• computerized tomography (CT)
• a capsule endoscopy procedure

may help confirm or rule out a diagnosis of Crohns disease.

No screening test exists for Crohns disease at this time. But if you have had Crohns disease affecting the colon or rectum for 8 to 10 years or longer, you may need a colon cancer screening. It usually involves taking multiple-tissue biopsies during a routine colonoscopy.

Prognosis

There is no known cure for Crohns disease. It can be marked by periods of improvement followed by flare-up episodes of symptoms.

Approximately 1 in 544 people in the United States have been diagnosed with Crohns disease. Occasional hospital stays and taking medications should not prevent most people with Crohns disease from leading normal lives.

Prevention

With no known cause of Crohns disease, it cannot be prevented. Preventing stress and leading a health lifestyle - such as eating healthy, avoiding smoking and exercising regularly - are attributed to preventing flare ups. Taking your prescribed medicines regularly will help to keep the disease in remission.

Complications

Crohns disease may lead to other complications, some more severe than others. Anal fissures, fistulas, bowel obstructions, ulcers, arthritis, or malnutrition are some of the complications connected to Crohns disease. Approximately ten percent of people with long-term Crohns disease develop colon cancer. A rare but potentially life-threatening complication associated with the disease is a massive distention or dilatation of the colon and rupture of the intestine. Osteoporosis has been known to develop in long-term Crohns patients as well. Painful red raised spots on the legs and an ulcerating skin condition called pyoderma gangrenosum, generally found around the ankles, are other complications related to the disease, as well as an ocular condition that may cause visual difficulties (uveitis, episcleritis).