Can I Die From Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)?

When someone is diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease, the first thought that may enter the mind is, "Can I die from this disease?" With improvements in the medical and surgical management of IBD, death as a result of IBD or one of its complications is exceedingly rare today, nor is life expectancy shortened.

 

While some older studies from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s suggest that the risk of dying is increased in people with IBD, these studies examined patients who had the disease before many of the modern advances in the medical and surgical care of IBD patients existed, which may have accounted for the slightly higher mortality rate.

 

In other instances, surgery may be delayed unnecessarily, leading to more complications and, ultimately, death. Doctors, patients, and their families are sometimes reluctant to consider surgery at the time of diagnosis, even when it may be the most appropriate way of managing the disease if it is very severe. This reluctance may be partly due to the feeling on the part of the doctor that medication should be given a chance to work. Because the patient and the family are not yet familiar with the disease, they may not have come to terms with the need for surgery.