Crohn’s Disease – Different Types

Transcript

So Crohn’s disease, as I mentioned can affect different parts of the digestive tract. We have what we call Crohn’s Colitis, which is Crohn’s, specifically of the colon. There’s Crohn’s ileocolitis, which means Crohn’s disease that affects the last portion of the small intestine as well as the colon. And then there’s just small bowel Crohn’s disease. That’s the most common type of Crohn’s disease that affects anywhere in the small bowel. Minority of patients may have Crohn’s disease that is isolated to the upper digestive tract, so the esophagus or the stomach or the upper digestive intestines. In terms of the presentation, there are different phenotypes, different kinds. There’s inflammatory Crohn’s disease where there’s inflammation in those different parts that I just described. There’s what we call fibrostenosing Crohn’s disease. Those are people who the inflammation causes narrowing of the intestines and they often are predisposed to blockages what we call bowel obstructions. The other form of Crohn’s disease, is what we call fistulizing Crohn’s disease, fistulizing Crohn’s disease, one of the most severe forms of Crohn’s disease. And that’s where the inflammation actually causes basically a burrowing of the inflammation from one intestine through to another part of the intestine. And you get connections between, say, the colon and the small intestine, and you can get connection between the intestine, other organs such as the bladder. And that can cause a lot of morbidity.