What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)?
Inflammatory Bowel Disease, known as IBD, is a term used to describe two different illnesses that involve inflammation in the bowel.
These are called Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. There are many things that are similar between the two, but there are also differences.
Crohn's disease (CD)
Crohn's disease (CD) can involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the bottom. The most common part to be involved in children is the lower end of the small bowel (the terminal ileum).
CD usually involves all the layers of the bowel wall, from the inside to the outer layer. When looking at the bowel wall under the microscope, there are some features that can be common with UC, but there are also some findings that are unique.
One of these is a finding called granuloma: these are clumps of particular inflammatory cells all joined together.
Ulcerative colitis (UC)
Ulcerative colitis (UC) involves the large bowel (colon). It can just be present in the lower parts (proctitis), parts of the large bowel, or even the whole of the large bowel. It is uncommon to have proctitis by itself in children. UC is less common than CD in children.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unclassified (IBDU)
Sometimes people diagnosed with IBD may initially be termed to have "IBDU" if it is not obvious whether they have CD or UC at the time of diagnosis; over time it usually becomes clearer if they have CD or UC.