Understanding Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Types
Two forms of IBD exist, including:
- Crohn's disease
- Ulcerative colitis
Both types of IBD are chronic or lifelong and characterized by flare-ups followed by periods of remission that can last months or even years. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis tend to appear in your teens or early adulthood.
The conditions can also affect children, and it affects men and women equally. Inflammatory bowel disease also tends to run in families.
Physicians do not know the exact cause of either condition, but patients with IBD have abnormal immune systems. IBD is not the same as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Crohn's disease most often involves inflammation in the ileum, the part of your small intestine that connects to the colon. Crohn’s disease can impact your entire digestive tract, from your mouth to your anus. Inflammation from Crohn’s disease penetrates the full thickness of your intestinal wall. This can cause perforations, strictures and abscesses that cause pain and complications
Ulcerative colitis is inflammation in the bowel and involves only the colon. It often begins in the rectum and travels part or all of the length of the colon. This condition affects the mucus lining of your colon but does not go into the colon wall.
Symptoms
Symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease include:
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Ulcers in the intestinal lining
- Inflammation of the eyes, joints and skin
How We Can Help
At IU Health, our physicians will use a collaborative approach to diagnosing and treating inflammatory bowel disease. Gastrointestinal pathologists, gastrointestinal radiologists, gastrointestinal psychologists, dietitians and colorectal surgeons will work together for your care.
Your physicians will use the latest techniques for evaluating your intestines, making a diagnosis and delivering treatment. IU Health has the only group in Indiana with a team of gastroenterologists dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
IU Health’s affiliation with the IU School of Medicine and the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology will give you access to experts and many endoscopic procedures used to diagnose and treat IBD. These include:
The EUS program at IU Health has one of the highest volume centers in the country, with more than 2,500 investigations performed each year. IU Health physicians are also the only ones in Indiana who offer double balloon endoscopy, a procedure that allows us to examine the entire intestine.
IU Health research efforts put us at the forefront of new therapies, including biologic medicines and fecal transplants.