Crohn's Disease Case Study

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines; specifically the colon and ileum. Crohn’s disease affects the ileus and part of the colon, but it can happen in any part of the gastrointestinal system. It can also affect the stomach, esophagus, small and large intestines and the mouth. Crohn’s disease is usually diagnosed around 15 and 30, but it can occur at any age. Crohn’s disease can also be called regional enteritis or ileitis. Crohn’s disease affects about 1.3-5.3 out of 100,000 of the population and is most common in Europe, US, and Scandinavia. The greatest onset in CD is between the ages of 15-25 in adolescents and the onset is in between the ages 50-80. It is more common in single people and people with CD have …show more content…
The treatment options depend on how severe the case is and where the disease is located at, if there are any complications associated with it and how well the patient responds to the whichever treatment. There is not a known cause for Crohn’s disease yet which means that there is no cure for the disease. Doctors set goals for treatment and that would be to reduce inflammation, stop the bleeding and diarrhea, relieve pain symptoms and any nutritional deficiencies. Some of the drugs used to treat Crohn’s are Azulfidine which reduce inflammation then you have what are called 5-ASA medications and those are called Canasa, Pentasa and Mesalamine, which are only used if the patient doesn’t react with Azulfidine. Some of the other 5-ASA products are Dipentum, balsalazide, Giazol, and Lialda. Another drug that can reduce the swelling would be prednisone which will only be prescribed if the disease is pretty active. With corticosteroids; given too much than you run a higher risk of getting infections and ulcers. Another drug that stops inflammation is immunomodulators which change the way the immune system reacts and decrease or increase the immune system activity depending on if immunostimulators or immunosuppressants are use. The immunosuppressants used for Crohn’s disease are cyclosporine, azathioprine, tacrolimus, methotrexate, and 6-mercaptopurine. When a person with Crohn’s disease does not react with immunomodulators then other biological drugs are recommended such as Remicade or Inflectra which have antibosies that attach to the area of inflammation promoting protein, tumor-necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha). Some of the TNF medications are Humira and Amjevita. Lastly, there are a few antibiotics that treat bacteria in the small intestine are ampicillin, metronidazole, cephalosporins, tetracycline, and

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