Clinicians may be unaware of the recent advances in the field of inflammatory bowel disease as it relates to pathophysiology, diagnosis, and up-to-date treatment approaches.
After reading the article, the reader should be able to:
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), classically divided into Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic, debilitating condition characterized by relapsing and remitting episodes of gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation. UC affects the superficial mucosa, starting with the rectum, in a continuous pattern and is limited to the colon. CD is characterized by transmural inflammation that can affect any part of the GI tract from mouth to anus. Approximately 25% of patients with IBD are diagnosed during childhood or adolescence. Presenting symptoms often include, but are not limited to, abdominal pain, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and weight loss. The clinical course can be highly variable, although it has been well established that pediatric patients frequently present with...
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