Inflammatory Diseases of the Colon Other than Idiopathic Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Apart from idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases, there is a wide range of inflammatory colonic diseases, which are mostly benign. They include intestinal tuberculosis, infectious enterocolitis by pathogenic bacteria such as Yersinia, Shigella, or Salmonella, colitis with parasite infestation, ischemic colitis, drug-associated colitis, radiation colitis, eosinophilic colitis, and diversion colitis. It can be challenging for clinicians to correctly diagnose these colitides. For instance, it is difficult to differentiate intestinal tuberculosis from Crohn’s disease because of clinical similarities between these two diseases. However, accurate diagnosis can be made by meticulous endoscopic examination. For bacterial infectious enterocolitis, careful clinical history such as acute-onset diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever should be the first step for the appropriate management strategy, while endoscopy presents little help, usually showing nonspecific appearance of inflammation. This chapter shows distinct endoscopic pictures of various colonic inflammatory conditions, which can guide clinicians to better understanding and distinguishing characteristics of these diseases.