Crohn's Disease
Patchy inflammation of any part of the gut from mouth to anus that extends through the full thickness of the bowel wall, producing strictures, fistulae and abscesses.
Definition
Chronic relapsing inflammatory bowel disease with discontinuous, transmural inflammation of any part of the gastrointestinal tract, most often the terminal ileum and colon. Diagnosis needs compatible symptoms plus endoscopic, histological and radiological evidence of patchy inflammation, with infection excluded.
First principles
Patchy and full thickness, not continuous and superficial
Inflammation skips along the gut, leaving normal bowel between diseased segments, and favours the terminal ileum and right colon. Because it crosses the whole wall rather than the lining alone, a normal colonic biopsy never excludes it.
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