How To Distinguish Among The Common Types Of Crohn's Disease?

Five Types Of Crohn’s Disease

1. Gastroduodenal Crohn's disease affects the stomach and duodenum, which is the highest portion or the beginning of the small intestine. Symptoms include weight loss, vomiting, loss of appetite, and severe pain in the upper-middle area of the abdomen. Gastroduodenal Crohn’s disease is often misdiagnosed as ulcer, and correct identification of the disease is often only made after repetitive ulcer treatments have failed, or when the disease spreads further down in the gastrointestinal tract.

2. Jejunoileitis is the second of the five main types of Crohn’s disease. It is marked by inflammation of the jejunum, the longest part of the small intestine, the area between duodenum and ileum. Symptoms include mild to severe abdominal pain, acute abdominal cramps after meals, along with diarrhea and vomiting. These are caused due to malnutrition and mal-absorption of nutrients in the jejunum. In severe cases, fistulas (or abnormal openings) can form in the small intestine, linking infected areas with non-infected areas of the intestine or with any other organ, such as the bladder. This can lead to development of infections outside the gastrointestinal tract.

3. Ileitis is one of the most common types of Crohn’s disease that affects the last part of the intestine, the ileum, which connects the small intestine with the large intestine. Symptoms include the usual cramps and diarrhea, along with pain in the right lower quadrant and periumbilical area. Besides, mal-absorption of vitamin B12 leads to peripheral neuropathy, or tingling in the fingers and toes. Also, the folate deficiency hinders red-blood-cell development, increasing risk of anemia. Fistulas can also develop.

4. Ileocolitis, as the name suggests, involves the ileum and the beginning of the colon, or the large intestine. It is also one of the most common types of Crohn’s disease, and the symptoms are also more or less similar to those of Ileitis, including weight loss. Often the disease spreads continuously into the colon from the ileum, and hence, involves the ileocecal valve too between them.  

5. Crohn's Colitis or Granulomatous Colitis is the type of Crohn’s disease that affects the colon. It is also the one that is most often confused with ulcerative colitis. But there are differences between the two. First, while Crohn’s Colitis occurs in patches, with healthy tissue between diseased tissues in the colon, ulcerative colitis is always continuous. Second, ulcerative colitis always affects the rectum and the area beyond, but Crohn’s Colitis can remain limited to the colon, sparing the rectum. Moreover, while Crohn’s disease affects the full thickness of the gastrointestinal walls, ulcerative colitis affects only the mucus membrane or the inner lining.

Treatments For Crohn’s Disease