It is a lifelong, recurring disease for which there are treatments but no known cause or cure. It is important to recognize the symptoms of Crohn s disease so you can seek proper treatment and learn how to manage the condition as quickly as possible. Other important signs and symptoms are reddening and inflammation of the eyes, joint pain, skin lesions, sores inside the mouth, weight loss and poor appetite. The disease is marked by periods of remission and progression. Because many of these symptoms can be related to other problems, it can sometimes be difficult to initially diagnose a person with Crohn s disease.
Diagnosis involves a physical exam, lab tests and diagnostic procedures such as X-rays.
The goal of medical management is to reduce the symptoms and begin a remission of the disease. There are many different medications that can be used to achieve this. New drug therapies continue to be developed. Surgery could be urgent, for example, in the case of a partial obstruction of the intestine. But often surgery is elective and is undertaken to clear a chronic partial obstruction of the small or large intestine, ileum or colon, or when medical management has failed to achieve the desired results.