Crohn's disease medical therapy
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Crohn's disease |
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Treatment |
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Crohn's disease medical therapy On the Web |
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Risk calculators and risk factors for Crohn's disease medical therapy |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overiew
Treatment may include drugs, nutrition supplements, surgery, or a combination of these options. The goals of treatment are to control inflammation, correct nutritional deficiencies, and relieve symptoms like abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding. At this time, treatment can help control the disease by lowering the number of times a person experiences a recurrence, but there is no cure. Treatment for Crohn’s disease depends on the location and severity of disease, complications, and the person’s response to previous medical treatments when treated for recurring symptoms. Some people have long periods of remission, sometimes years, when they are free of symptoms. However, the disease usually recurs at various times over a person’s lifetime. This changing pattern of the disease means one cannot always tell when a treatment has helped. Predicting when a remission may occur or when symptoms will return is not possible.
Medical Therapy
A number of medical treatments are utilized with the goal of putting and keeping the disease in remission. These include 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) formulations (Pentasa capsules, Asacol tablets, Lialda tablets, Rowasa retention enemas), steroid medications, immunomodulators (such as azathioprine, mercaptopurine (6-MP), and methotrexate), and newer biological medications, such as infliximab (Remicade) and adalimumab (Humira).[1]Also in January 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new biological medication known as natalizumab (Tysabri) for both induction of remission and maintenance of remission in moderate and severe Crohn's Disease. Treatment is only needed for people exhibiting symptoms. The therapeutic approach to Crohn's disease is sequential: to treat acute disease and then to maintain remission. Treatment initially involves the use of medications to treat any infection and to reduce inflammation. This usually involves the use of aminosalicylate anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids, and may include antibiotics.
Once remission is induced, the goal of treatment becomes maintaining remission and avoiding flares. Because of side-effects, the prolonged use of corticosteroids must be avoided. Although some people are able to maintain remission with aminosalicylates alone, many require immunosuppressive drugs. On 14 January 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved natalizumab (Tysabri) for both induction of remission and maintenance of remission in Crohns. Natalizumab is humanized monoclonal antibody (MAb), and the first alpha-4 antagonist in a new class of agents called selective adhesion-molecule (SAM) inhibitors. Alpha-4 integrin is required for leukocytes to adhere to the walls of blood vessels and migrate into the gut; natalizumab prevents leukocytes from doing that. Natalizumab was previously approved for multiple sclerosis. However, because it suppresses the immune system, natalizumab has been linked to a very rare adverse effect that is usually fatal if undetected. Leukocytes also protect the body from viruses, and 2 patients on natalizumab, who were also receiving other immuno-suppressive drugs (Avonex and Immuran), died of a rare brain infection, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Because of this danger, patients must be in a special monitoring program, and natalizumab is given as a mono-therapy.[2].As of late December 2007, more than 21,000 MS patients were receiving natalizumab mono-therapy without a single incidence of PML occurring.[3].
Surgery may be required for complications such as obstructions, fistulas and/or abscesses, or if the disease does not respond to drugs within a reasonable time. For patients with an obstruction due to a stricture, two options for treatment are strictureplasty and resection of that portion of bowel. According to a retrospective review at the Cleveland Clinic, there is no statistical significance between strictureplasty alone versus strictureplasty and resection specifically in cases of duodenal involvement. In these cases, re-operation rates were 31% and 27%, respectively, indicating that strictureplasty is a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with duodenal involvement.[4]
Recent studies using Helminthic therapy or hookworms to treat Crohn's Disease and other (non-viral) auto-immune diseases seem to yield promising results.[5][6][7]
References
- ↑ Podolsky, Daniel K. (2002). "Inflammatory bowel disease". New England Journal of Medicine. 346 (6): 417–29. PMID 12167685. Retrieved 2006-07-02. Unknown parameter
|month=ignored (help) - ↑ "FDA Approves Tysabri to Treat Moderate-to-Severe Crohn's Disease" (Press release). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2008-01-14. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ↑ .http://www.elan.com/News/full.asp?ID=1091942
- ↑ Ozuner G, Fazio VW, Lavery IC, Milsom JW, Strong SA (1996). "Reoperative rates for Crohn's disease following strictureplasty. Long-term analysis". Dis. Colon Rectum. 39 (11): 1199–203. PMID 8918424.
- ↑ British Medical Journal A proof of concept study establishing Necator americanus in Crohn’s patients and reservoir donors
- ↑ Daily Mail. The bloodsucking worm that fights allergies from inside your tummy 14-09-2007.
- ↑ How to cure your asthma or hayfever using hookworm - a practical guide. 01-05-2006.