Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines. It primarily causes ulcerations (breaks in the lining) of the small and large intestines, but can affect the digestive system anywhere from the mouth to the anus. It causes a wide variety of symptoms like abdominal pain, diarrhea (even bloody if inflammation is severe), vomiting, weight loss. It may also cause complications outside the gastrointestinal tract such as skin rashes, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, tiredness, and lack of concentration.
Crohn’s disease is related closely to another chronic inflammatory condition that involves only the colon called ulcerative colitis. Together, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are frequently referred to as Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Crohn’s disease is caused by interactions between environmental, immunological and bacterial factors in genetically susceptible individuals. This result in a chronic inflammatory disorder, in which the body’s immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract possibly directed at microbial antigens. Crohn’s disease has traditionally been described as an autoimmune disease, but recent investigators have described it as an immune deficiency state.
Many people with Crohn’s disease have symptoms for years prior to the diagnosis. Because of the ‘patchy’ nature of the gastrointestinal disease and the depth of tissue involvement, initial symptoms can be more subtle than those of ulcerative colitis. People with Crohn’s disease experience chronic recurring periods of flare-ups and remission.
Crohn’s disease tends to present initially in the teens and twenties, with another peak incidence in the fifties to seventies, although the disease can occur at any age. Males and females are equally affected. Smokers are two times more likely to develop Crohn’s disease than nonsmokers. Crohn’s disease tends to be more common in relatives of patients with Crohn’s disease. If a person has a relative with the disease, his/her risk of developing the disease is estimated to be at least 10 times that of the general population and 30 times greater if the relative with Crohn’s disease is a sibling.
Treatment options are restricted to controlling symptoms, maintaining remission, and preventing relapse. The disease was named after gastroenterologist Burrill Bernard Crohn, who, in 1932, together with two other colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, described a series of patients with inflammation of the terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the illness.
