What is Crohn's disease?
What is Crohn's disease?
- Crohn's disease: Crohn's disease causes inflammation of the digestive system. It is one of a group of diseases called inflammatory bowel disease. The disease can affect any area from the mouth to the anus. It often affects the lower part of the small intestine called the ileum.
- Crohn's disease: A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by chronic inflammation involving all layers of the intestinal wall, noncaseating granulomas affecting the intestinal wall and regional lymph nodes, and transmural fibrosis. Crohn's disease most commonly involves the terminal ileum; the colon is the second most common site of involvement. --2004
Source - Diseases Database
- Crohn's disease: a serious chronic and progressive inflammation of the ileum producing frequent bouts of diarrhea with abdominal pain and nausea and fever and weight loss.
Source - WordNet 2.1
Ophanet, a consortium of European partners,
currently defines a condition rare when it affects 1 person per 2,000.
They list Crohn's disease as a "rare disease".
Source - Orphanet
Crohn's disease: Introduction
Types of Crohn's disease:
Broader types of Crohn's disease:
How many people get Crohn's disease?
Prevalance of Crohn's disease: 500,000 Americans
Prevalance Rate of Crohn's disease: approx 1 in 544 or 0.18% or 500,000 people in USA [about data]
Who gets Crohn's disease?
Patient Profile for Crohn's disease: Typically teens and young adults; often 15-30.
Profile for Crohn's disease:
Crohn's disease affects men and women equally and seems to run in some
families. About 20 percent of people with Crohn's disease have a blood
relative with some form of IBD, most often a brother or sister and
sometimes a parent or child.
(Source: excerpt from Crohn's Disease: NIDDK)
How serious is Crohn's disease?
Prognosis of Crohn's disease: the prognosis depends on treatment
Complications of Crohn's disease:
see complications of Crohn's disease
Prognosis of Crohn's disease:
Some people have long periods of remission, sometimes years, when they
are free of symptoms. However, the disease usually recurs at various times
over a person's lifetime. This changing pattern of the disease means one
cannot always tell when a treatment has helped. Predicting when a
remission may occur or when symptoms will return is not possible.
(Source: excerpt from Crohn's Disease: NIDDK)
...
People with Crohn's disease may feel well and be free of symptoms for
substantial spans of time when their disease is not active. Despite the
need to take medication for long periods of time and occasional
hospitalizations, most people with Crohn's disease are able to hold jobs,
raise families, and function successfully at home and in society.
(Source: excerpt from Crohn's Disease: NIDDK)
What causes Crohn's disease?
Causes of Crohn's disease: see causes of Crohn's disease
Causes of Crohn's disease: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of chronic disorders that causes inflammation or ulceration in the small and large intestines. Most often, IBD is classified either as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. While ulcerative colitis affects the inner lining of the colon and rectum, Crohn's disease extends into the deeper layers of the intestinal wall. It is a chronic condition and may recur at various times over a lifetime.
(Source: Genes and Disease by the National Center for Biotechnology)
...
Theories about what causes Crohn's disease
abound, but none has been proven. The most popular theory is that the
body's immune system reacts to a virus or a bacterium by causing ongoing
inflammation in the intestine.
People with Crohn's disease tend to have abnormalities of the immune
system, but doctors do not know whether these abnormalities are a cause or
result of the disease. Crohn's disease is not caused by emotional
distress.
(Source: excerpt from Crohn's Disease: NIDDK)
Risk factors for Crohn's disease:
see
risk factors for Crohn's disease
What are the symptoms of Crohn's disease?
Symptoms of Crohn's disease:
see symptoms of Crohn's disease
Complications of Crohn's disease:
see complications of Crohn's disease
Onset of Crohn's disease: Crohn's disease can occur in people of all age groups, but it is more often diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 30.
Can anyone else get Crohn's disease?
Contagion of autoimmunity:
generally not; see details in contagion of autoimmune diseases.
Inheritance:
see inheritance of Crohn's disease
Crohn's disease: Testing
Diagnostic testing: see tests for Crohn's disease.
Misdiagnosis: see misdiagnosis and Crohn's disease.
How is it treated?
Doctors and Medical Specialists for Crohn's disease: General practitioner, Primary care physician, Gastroenterologist, General surgeon, Hematologist, Immunologist, Oncologist, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Oncology surgeon, Genetic diseases specialist, Genetic counselor, Medical oncologist, Gastroeneterology surgeon, Anaesthetist, Rheumatologist, Ophthalmogist, Dermatologist
;
see also doctors and medical specialists for Crohn's disease.
Treatments for Crohn's disease:
see treatments for Crohn's disease
Research for Crohn's disease:
see research for Crohn's disease
Society issues for Crohn's disease
Hospitalization statistics for Crohn's disease:
The following are statistics from various sources about hospitalizations and Crohn's disease:
- 0.17% (21,634) of hospital consultant episodes were for crohn’s disease in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 82% of hospital consultant episodes for crohn’s disease required hospital admission in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 42% of hospital consultant episodes for crohn’s disease were for men in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 58% of hospital consultant episodes for crohn’s disease were for women in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 35% of hospital consultant episodes for crohn’s disease required emergency hospital admission in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 9.6 days was the mean length of stay in hospitals for crohn’s disease in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 6 days was the median length of stay in hospitals for crohn’s disease in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- more statistics...»
Hospitalizations for Crohn's disease: 100,000 (64 percent for Crohn's
disease) (Source: excerpt from
Digestive Diseases Statistics: NIDDK)
Organs Affected by Crohn's disease:
Organs and body systems related to Crohn's disease include:
Name and Aliases of Crohn's disease
Main name of condition: Crohn's disease
Class of Condition for Crohn's disease: autoimmune
Other names or spellings for Crohn's disease:
regional enteritis, granulomatous colitis
Regional ileitis
Source - Diseases Database
Regional enteritis, Regional ileitis, Crohn's disease, Regional ileitis, Crohn's disease
Source - WordNet 2.1
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» Next page: Online Medical Textbooks for Crohn's disease
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