Q. How often does a patient require to undergo endoscopy (colonoscopy/ sigmoidoscopy)?
A. After the initial endoscopy (sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy), patient would require undergoing repeat endoscopies in the initial stages every 3-6 months or depending on the clinical course (improvement of the disease).

Q. What is the treatment of IBD?
A. The treatment of IBD consists of using 5-ASA and if necessary steroids. These drugs have had excellent results and have saved the lives of thousands of patients.

Q. Can IBD be cured? Does it require life long treatment?
A. The word "cured" may not apply. However, the patient remains symptom free or in remission for a long time. Theoretically patient would require life long treatment.

Q. How serious is IBD? What are its complications?
A. Normally Inflammatory Bowel Disease is not a serious condition. However, occasionally it can land up in life threatening complications.

The commonest minor complications are:
          1) Anemia
          2) Nutritional Deficiency
          3) Weight Loss

The major complications are severe bleeds or toxic megacolon.

Q. When do you suspect a child has IBD?
A. One should suspect a patient to have IBD:
UC : Child will complain of diarrhea, rectal bleeding, passage of mucus and abdominal pain. Child can also have nausea, anorexia and in severe cases may even vomit. There may also be fever, anemia and weight loss.

Crohn's disease : Child may have pain in right sided pain which is recurrent and colicky in nature. There may also be pain during defecation and pain may increase after defecation. Diarrhea, fever, weight loss, bleeding per rectum may be other manifestations.

Q. How often does a patient require to undergo endoscopy (colonoscopy/ sigmoidoscopy)?
A. After the initial endoscopy (sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy), patient would require undergoing repeat endoscopies in the initial stages every 3-6 months or depending on the clinical course (improvement of the disease).

Q. What is the treatment of IBD?
A. The treatment of IBD consists of using 5-ASA and if necessary steroids. These drugs have had excellent results and have saved the lives of thousands of patients.

Q. Can IBD be cured? Does it require life long treatment?
A. The word "cured" may not apply. However, the patient remains symptom free or in remission for a long time. Theoretically patient would require life long treatment.

Q. How serious is IBD? What are its complications?
A. Normally Inflammatory Bowel Disease is not a serious condition. However, occasionally it can land up in life threatening complications.

The commonest minor complications are:
          1) Anemia
          2) Nutritionaldeficiency
          3) Weight loss

The major complications are severe bleeds or toxic megacolon.