Crohn's Disease Specialist

What is Crohn's disease?

Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disorder that's one of the inflammatory bowel diseases. It can affect any part of your gastrointestinal tract, causing inflammation that leads to intestinal scarring. Acute scarring can eventually cause narrowing in parts of your intestines if left untreated for a long time.

These changes can cause a variety of disabling symptoms, including:

• Abdominal pain
• Chronic diarrhea
• Malnutrition
• Fever
• Loss of appetite
• Rectal bleeding
• Weight loss
• Anal fissures
• Anal fistulas

Crohn's disease is incurable, but there are numerous potential treatments that help you manage your condition. Many patients spend long periods in remission with few if any symptoms, but others struggle to find the right treatment regime and suffer increasingly poor health.

How is Crohn's disease treated?

Initially, your gastroenterologist works with you to find medical treatments that help improve your symptoms. These usually begin with medications that reduce the inflammation in your gastrointestinal tract, such as mesalazine. Lifestyle changes can also help some patients with Crohn's disease.

If your symptoms persist, you might need to take steroids (the most powerful type of anti-inflammatory) or immunosuppressants to reduce the damaging effects of your malfunctioning immune system. There are also biologic medications such as adalimumab and infliximab that target proteins in your body responsible for inflammation. 

Would I need surgery for Crohn's disease?

Sometimes, even when they receive excellent medical management for Crohn's disease, patients remain symptomatic. In these circumstances, surgery might be a better option. Dr. Zehnpfennig at Montana Colon underwent specialist fellowship training in minimally invasive colorectal surgery, which means he has exceptional skills in performing procedures that help patients with Crohn's disease.

Dr. Zehnpfennig uses minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques and the da Vinci® robotic surgery system to perform most operations, even if patients have undergone one or more open surgeries previously. Patients with Crohn's disease often see a colorectal specialist after other surgeries prove unsuccessful.

Many surgeons use an open approach, accessing the gastrointestinal tract through your existing scars. That may seem like the safest approach, but it increases the risk of complications, causes more pain, and requires a longer recovery period.

Laparoscopic techniques and robotic surgery enable Dr. Zehnpfennig to identify scar tissue resulting from previous surgeries and safely treat the diseased sections of your intestines. Minimally invasive surgery also causes less pain and helps you get back to normal life more quickly.

What type of surgery do I need for Crohn's disease?

There are several advanced techniques Dr. Zehnpfennig can use for Crohn's disease, depending on how much of your bowel needs removing. Examples include ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA), which preserves your anus so you don't need a colostomy bag, and the NICE procedure (natural orifice intracorporeal anastomosis with extraction of specimen).

If you're finding it hard to manage Crohn's disease despite trying all the medical solutions, surgery could offer you relief from your symptoms. To find out how, call Montana Colon or book an appointment online today.