Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Diagnosis And Therapeutics (clinical Gastroenterology)

World-renowned clinicians provide a comprehensive yet concise overview of the myriad of issues surrounding inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. Writing in a language accessible to those both within and without the medical community, these experienced physicians fully explain what IBD is, why it does what it does, how to treat it, and when it is necessary to proceed to surgery or advanced therapy. They also elucidate the pathophysiology of the diseases, review the successes and failures of different therapies, and describe the impact of these diseases on patients, families, and the health care system. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic relapsing diseases that unite patients, their families, friends, health care providers, researchers, employers, and even health care insurers and other health-related industries in an ongoing struggle for knowledge and help. In Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Diagnosis and Therapeutics, a panel of world-renowned clinicians provides a comprehensive yet concise overview of the myriad of issues surrounding these perplexing and troubling illnesses. Writing in a language accessible to those both inside and outside the medical community, these experienced physicians fully explain what IBD is, why it does what it does, how to treat it, and when it is necessary to proceed to surgery or advanced therapy. They also elucidate the pathophysiology of the diseases, review the successes and failures of different therapies, and describe the impact of these diseases on patients, families, and the health care system. Topics of special interest include discussions of current and emerging therapies, new genetic insights, new serological markers, women's issues, economic issues, and the relation between colon cancer and IBD. Many chapters give addresses of organizations, phone numbers, and websites from which additional information and help can be obtained. Comprehensive and informative, Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Diagnosis and Therapeutics offers physicians, patients, their families, and public health officials alike a clear, readable account of the many complex issues involved in inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis One of the most vivid memories from my medical school training was seeing my first surgical operation on a patient with Crohn's disease. The senior surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the same institution at which Burrill Crohn, Leon Ginzburg, and Gordon Oppenheimer had first described the disease “terminal ileitis,” had - doubtedly done countless operations on patients with inflammatory bowel disease in the past. Yet as we both gazed down into the patient's open abdomen, at the “creeping fat” that seemed to be wrapping its sticky fingers around the young man's intestines, he stated, “this is the m- tery of Crohn's disease—no two patients are ever the same. ” What is it about the inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis, that we find so intriguing? Is it the young age of the patients, many who are younger than even the medical students - tending to them? Or is it the elusive etiology, the theory of a “mystery organism” that has yet to be identified? Perhaps it is the familial pattern of disease, where many patients have relatives with similar diseases, yet in some instances only one of a pair of identical twins is affected. Regardless of the cause, these chronic diseases with a typically early age of onset, result in a long-term commitment of the patient, their fa- lies, friends, health care providers, researchers, employers, and even health care insurers and other health-related industries. The early history of ulcerative colitis is lost in the obscurities of past centuries and in the mix of the infectious colitides (1).