ABSTRACT
Children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) make up a growing proportion of patients requiring surgery in the non-neonatal age group. IBD remains a medically incurable condition with significant morbidity. There has been an increased incidence of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease in all developed countries (1). The etiology of inflammatory bowel disease remains amystery, and is thought to bemultifactorial with a combination of environmental, infectious, and genetic factors. The initial therapy for inflammatory bowel disease is medical, and with recent advances in medical therapy the overall need for surgery may be mitigated (2,3). Despite this, surgical therapy will continue to play an integral role for management of patients with intractable disease. The surgical approach for the two disease entities remains distinctly different. In ulcerative colitis, a curative plan is undertaken, while for Crohn’s disease the goal is relief of symptoms and most surgeons employ a conservative surgical approach.
