Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Crohn’s Colitis

Question:
As I understand it, if both the large and small intestine are involved, it is Crohn's colitis, not CD.  So do I have Crohn's colitis, or 'only' CD?

Answer:
Actually the term Crohn's colitis is more of less a descriptive term to categorize Crohn's disease that is confined solely to the large intestine and to differentiate from Ulcerative Colitis (which isn't always easy). The location breakdown of Crohn's disease is as follows; 35% have only small bowel involvement, 45% have both small bowel and large bowel (colon) involvement, and about 20% have disease confined to colon (Crohn's colitis).   Regardless of the location it is still referred to as Crohn's disease, although descriptive terms (or subtypes) such as Crohn's colitis, ileitis, ileocolitis, etc. might be used to further describe the disease by location. Crohn's Colitis is generally used to describe Crohn's Disease of the large intestine.  The colitis part refers to the location of the disease.