Chrons Disease Prognosis

So you have been diagnosed with chrons disease, after the initial shock, many people want to know what the outlook is, or the prognosis of chrons disease?

Again as with many questions involving Chrons Disease, there is no straight answer and the outlook tends to be quite variable. It all depends on which part or parts of your gut have been affected with chrons, how frequent and how severe your flare-ups are.

The Stats on a Chrons Disease Prognosis
Around Eight out of every Ten people who have Chrons disease will eventually require some sort of surgery at some stage in their life. About 50% of people with Chrons disease surgery is required within the first 10 years from the emergence of the disease.

Why do most people with chrons disease need surgery?
Is seems that the most common reason is to relieve an abnormal contraction that has formed in your gut.

Some people with chrons disease require more than one operation in their lifetime and if your chrons disease developed as a young adult, the average is to have between 2 and 4 operations in your lifetime. The good news in all this glum is that you CAN expect to have a good quality of life for most of the time, and it is important not to forget that!

Stats on Chrons Disease Flare-ups
Around 15% of people who have crohns disease have frequent and / or severe flare-ups. Again this is not a fixed number as a few people with Chrons disease have just one or two flare-ups in their whole life and spend most of their lives with no symptoms of the disease. The most likely prognosis is that you fall somewhere in between and have flare-ups from now and again and can have long periods of time without any symptoms of Chrons Disease.

It is important to keep in mind that a severe flare-up is and can be life threatening and there are some people who die as a result of a serious complication like a perforated gut, so you should always seek professional medical advice if you suspect that you are having a Chrons disease flare up .

Three Quick Chrons Disease Facts

As I don't have a lot of time today I am just going to pass on thre interesting facts on Chrons Disease that I have managed to dig up in my research:

First of the correct spelling is actually Crohn's Disease. The Cisease is named after Dr Crohn, who in the 1930's identified the disease.

You can get crohns disease at any age and it is still not fully understood why you get it although they do know that chrons disease is hereditary.

For every one thousand people living in the UK, about one person has Crohns disease

What are the Complications associated with Chrons Disease?

Most complications associated with Chrons Disease end up with abdominal pain to different degrees. The obstruction of the bowl, narrowing and perforation, or ulcers, scarring, abscesses and inflammation, can all result in abdominal pain and sometimes nausea and vomiting.

Because of this, it sometimes means that the intestines cannot absorb enough nutrition from the food that you are eating and this can lead to deficiencies, diarrhea can lead to dehydration and rectal bleeding to anemia.

The narrowing of your intestines with Chrons Disease can be because of swelling and scar tissue which result in blockages. Ulcers can eat into the walls of the intestines and can affect the surrounding tissue of organs like the bladder, vagina or the abdominal cavity. This burrowing causes a tube-like tunnel which is called a fistula, if the fistula becomes infected it causes abscess and recurrent infections.

Sometimes Chrons Disease is also associated with inflammation of the joints, arthritis, skin problems and inflammation of the eyes or mouth.