• Crohn's Disease - Introduction
• Highlights
• Causes
• Risk Factors
• Symptoms
• Complications
• Prognosis

Introduction

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a general term that includes two main disorders:

• Ulcerative colitis (UC)
• Crohn's disease (CD)

These two diseases are related, but they are considered separate disorders with somewhat different treatment options. The basic distinctions between UC and CD are location and severity. However, as many as 10% of patients with IBD have features and symptoms that match the criteria for both disorders, at least in the early stages. (This is called...