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Crohn's Disease: A Case Study

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The immune system, including the cells and tissues that carry out the immune responses, seek and kill invaders. It defends the body from foreign invaders by using mainly four steps. Recognition, detect infection or harm, effector function, contain and eliminate the infection, regulation, controls activity to avoid damage to the body, and lastly, memory, the system remembers how to defend and eliminate the infection if it shows back up in the body. A person’s immune system cells, normally, recognize and do not attack their own tissues and chemicals. The lack of reaction is called self-tolerance. When the body attacks normal and healthy tissue it is called an autoimmune disease. Crohn’s disease is when a body’s immune system begins to attack healthy cells in the GI tracts, this causes inflammation. It most commonly affects the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine. The disease …show more content…
Medications will not cure the disease but some can reduce symptoms. They can help introduce remission and maintain it and this also helps improve one’s quality of life. Many patients with Crohn’s are required to go through a medication therapy. Bowel rest is also another treatment. A doctor has their patient only ingest clear liquids or not having any oral intake. Although medication seems to be the best option for treatment, but surgery is something that almost every patient has to go through. There are three different types of surgeries that a surgeon can perform, small bowel resection, subtotal colectomy, and proctocolectomy and ileostomy. Small bowel resection is a surgery that removes part of the small intestine, the disease may cause a blockage in the small intestine which needs to be removed if severe. A subtotal colectomy is the same thing as a small bowel resection except it is the removal of the large intestine. Proctocolectomy and ileostomy is the removal of one's entire rectum and

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