Crohn's disease treatment

A plan may use medicines to calm active inflammation and other medicines to help maintain control. Some treatments work mainly in the gut, while others affect the immune system more broadly. The choice depends on the location and severity of disease, previous treatments, other health conditions, and personal preferences.

Nutrition support can help when appetite, absorption, or weight is affected. Surgery may be considered for a narrowed bowel, a fistula, an abscess, or disease that remains troublesome despite medical treatment. Surgery treats a complication or damaged segment; it does not remove the need for follow-up.

Take medicines on the schedule provided and discuss side effects before stopping them. Keep a record of abdominal pain, diarrhoea, bleeding, fever, appetite, and any change after starting treatment; this gives your clinician useful information at review.

Attend monitoring appointments. Checks may include examination, blood tests, stool tests, imaging, or endoscopy, depending on the medicine and your symptoms. Ask before starting a new supplement or pain medicine.

Get urgent help for severe abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, a swollen abdomen, inability to pass stool or gas, heavy bleeding, faintness, or fever with marked deterioration. These signs can indicate a complication or serious infection.

Contact your treatment team promptly if diarrhoea or pain is escalating, you cannot keep medicines down, or a new medicine causes troubling symptoms.

Ask what the treatment is intended to change, when improvement should be reviewed, which monitoring tests are needed, what side effects matter, and what the next option would be if control is not achieved.