The goals of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment are to:
- Decrease swelling and redness in your child’s intestines.
- Help the intestines heal.
- Get rid of your child’s symptoms.
- Make sure your child is getting good nutrition.
To achieve these goals, all Seattle Children's patients with IBD see our gastrointestinal (GI) doctors, who work closely with our surgeons.
Treatment Options for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
We start treatment for inflammatory bowel disease with medicine and nutritional support.
If medicine and other non-surgical therapies are not enough, or if your child develops a serious complication of IBD, they may need surgery. Our GI doctors and surgeons work with you to help determine the best plan of care for your child.
Surgery for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Surgery for Crohn’s disease and surgery for ulcerative colitis are very different. The type of operation your child needs depends on their condition.
Surgery for Crohn’s disease is used to treat complications, such as an abnormal channel that forms in the intestine (fistula), or a blockage (obstruction). The approach in surgery is to repair or remove the affected part of the intestine and to preserve as much of the healthy intestine as possible. Surgeons use many techniques to do this.
Surgery can cure ulcerative colitis. If your child has this condition, the colon and lining of the rectum can be removed. Then, your child's rectum is reconstructed in a procedure called an ileoanal pullthrough. Our surgeons have performed more than 100 of these operations.
Our surgeons have experience performing operations for both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. They are skilled in both laparoscopic surgery, or minimally invasive, techniques and in open methods. Your child's surgeon will help you decide which technique is best for your child.
Read details about using medicine, nutrition and surgery to treat Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.