Acute Medicine | Gastroenterology | Ulcerative colitis: Investigation and management

Ulcerative Colitis: Investigation and Management
Session Overview
Description
This session considers the initial clinical presentation, appropriate radiological and endoscopic investigations, differential diagnoses and management of patients with ulcerative colitis.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe the different presentations of patients with ulcerative colitis
• Explain the appropriate investigations to request
• Describe different treatment strategies available for ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition, characterised by:

• A relapsing and remitting course
• Continuous mucosal inflammation of the   colon without granulomas on biopsy

UC affects the rectum and a variable extent of the colon.

Patients usually present with UC in late adolescence or early adulthood, but it can occur at any age and it affects both sexes equally.

Its prevalence in the UK population is approximately 243 per 100 000.