Inflammatory bowel disease – Colitis Association India

What is inflammatory bowel disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease commonly refers to ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. In these diseases there is inflammation of the lining of the intestine. Inflammation is a response of the body to any insult or injury. It manifests as redness, swelling and is often accompanied by pain.

In ulcerative colitis there is inflammation of large intestine or colon. In Crohn’s disease there can be inflammation anywhere between mouth to anus but it commonly involves the small intestine where it joins large intestine.

Let us first learn about the digestive tract. This is the diagram of the gastro-intestinal tract.

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The digestive tract begins with mouth, followed by throat followed by esophagus (food pipe) followed by stomach.

Food then goes to small intestine for digestion. The small intestine is divided into duodenum, jejunum and ileum.

From the small intestine the food goes to large intestine. Large intestine has following parts: cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, rectum and anal canal.

Most of the GI tract has 4 layers (with exceptions). Uncomplicated ulcerative colitis involves only the inner most lining called as mucosa. Crohn's disease tends to involve more than one layer of the intestine.