Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory bowel diseases that are chronic and may reoccur.  There are many different treatment forms available that can lead to long remissions though presently no cure exists for it.

 

Crohn’s disease was first described by Dalziel in Scotland in the year 1913 and is an inflammatory disease that may affect the entire alimentary canal that ranges from the mouth to anus.  The inflammation is extended through the entire gut wall layers and there are also skin lesions with some amount of normal tissues present.

Commonly affected parts include the terminal ileum as well as the large intestine and are also known to often affect the anus.

Ulcerative Colitis May Cause Diarrhea And Rectal Bleeding

Ulcerative colitis is different to dysentery and infectious diarrhea and was described by Wilks and Moxon way back in 1875, who were the first to identify this ailment in which there is inflammation of the mucosa of the large intestine.

Ulcerative colitis may cause diarrhea as well as rectal bleeding and it is believed that there may be about 170 people out of every 100,000 being affected by ulcerative colitis and that approximately seven to twelve new cases out of every 100,000 are known to occur every year. Though found mostly in the Western countries it is also a worldwide phenomenon.

There are fundamental differences between Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.  Ulcerative colitis results in inflammation only in the colon and rectum while Crohn’s disease results in inflammation in the colon, rectum, stomach (occasionally), mouth, small intestine, and esophagus.

Also, how the inflammation in Crohn’s disease and those of ulcerative colitis appear are different and apart from the severest cases, ulcerative colitis causes inflammation that touches the superficial layers of the bowel’s inner lining but the inflammation in Crohn’s disease is concentrated in a few areas and affects more than the superficial layers of the bowel’s inner lining. In this way, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are different.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the most well known forms of inflammatory bowel disease and both may be categorized as being “idiopathic” inflammatory bowel disease due to the fact that their etiology is not yet known.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are also different in that the former does not always involve the rectum while in the latter case, the rectum is always involved.  The sinus tracts and fistulae, strictures as well as granulomas are often present in Crohn’s disease while they are absent in ulcerative colitis.

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