What is Crohn’s disease?
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory process primarily involving the intestinal tract
What are the symptoms of Crohn’s disease?
Common symptoms include cramping, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, weight loss, and bloating. Other symptoms may include anal pain or drainage, skin lesions, rectal abscess, fissure, and joint pain (arthritis).
What causes Crohn’s disease?
The exact cause is not known. However, current theories center on an immunologic (the body’s defense system) and/or bacterial cause. Crohn’s disease is not contagious, but it does have a slight genetic (inherited) tendency. An x-ray study of the small intestine may be used to diagnose Crohn’s disease.
How is Crohn’s disease treated?
Initial treatment is almost always with medication. There is no “cure” for Crohn’s disease, but medical therapy with one or more drugs provides a means to treat early Crohn’s disease and relieve its symptoms. The most common drugs prescribed are corticosteroids, such as prednisone and methylprednisolone, and various anti-inflammatory agents.
Not all patients with these or other complications require surgery.
it is important to realize that surgery is eventually required in up to three-fourths of all patients with Crohn’s
