Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Treatment

At Mayo Clinic, health care team members discuss the most appropriate approach for care with their patients. Treatment options for IBD include dietary changes, medications and sometimes surgery. Counseling can also help combat the emotional distress of having a chronic illness.

Mayo physicians work with IBD patients to avoid or delay surgery, if feasible. They work with patients to find the best combination of anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce symptoms. However, steroids, commonly prescribed for IBD, may cause serious long-term effects such as hypertension and osteoporosis. So Mayo is researching and often treating patients with alternative approaches which have fewer side effects to manage the disease. Mayo maintains an extensive database of patient treatment results. The database allows doctors to compare treatment effectiveness from patients with similar symptoms to help guide future therapy.

For more specific information on treatment of specific forms of IBD, see:

• Crohn's disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• Pouchitis