[Current status of treatment of inflammatory bowel disease]

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease encompasses a group of diseases with poorly defined etiology that affect the digestive tract. These diseases are characterized by their chronic course and by periods of disease activity, of variable severity, that alternate with periods of clinical remission. In the last few years, inflammatory bowel disease has been the object of intense research, which has increased knowledge of the physiopathogenic mechanisms involved. This has enabled the development of a new generation of biotechnological drugs effective in patients previously considered to be refractory to medical treatment and has allowed the accumulated corticosteroid dose to be reduced and the indications for surgery and hospital admissions to be decreased, thus improving quality of life. In addition, some classical drugs have been demonstrated to be effective in recurrence prevention after surgery for Crohn's disease and in the prevention of dysplasia and colorectal cancer in inflammatory bowel disease.