For Your Patients: What Is Ulcerative Colitis?

So you or a loved one has been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis or UC. What does that mean? This 12-month series seeks to explain what the disease entails and how it's typically managed. As with any illness, however, it's important to note that how it affects you and the best ways of treating it are an individual matter and should be discussed in depth with your doctor.

What Is UC?

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the large intestine. It's one of a family of illnesses called inflammatory bowel disease, which also includes a condition called Crohn's disease. The symptoms are similar -- cramping, diarrhea, and urgency to find a toilet -- but otherwise UC and Crohn's are quite different.

First, a bit of anatomy. As food leaves the stomach, it enters the long and tangled tubular structure known as the small intestine. What hasn't been fully digested passes into the roughly horseshoe-shaped large intestine, also called the colon or large bowel, which ends with the rectum to connect with the outside world. The colon is lined with a layer of cells that normally acts as a barrier to keep the bowel contents where they belong.

In UC, the barrier layer weakens for reasons not fully understood, allowing bowel contents to penetrate. Inflammation develops, eventually eroding the lining of the colon.

What Can I Expect?

UC is not typically life-threatening by itself. Persistent diarrhea and urgency are uncomfortable and extremely inconvenient and can severely affect a patient's quality of life. UC does not usually go away on its own. However the good news is that most patients can have their symptoms controlled, and some even reach remission (i.e., with no symptoms and healing of the colon lining) with currently available medications. In addition, UC patients are more likely than others to develop colorectal cancer, although most do not, and treatment may reduce the risk.

Next: What to look for and when to see your doctor

MedPage Today's "Medical Journeys" is a set of clinical resources reviewed by doctors, meant for physicians and other healthcare professionals as well as the patients they serve. Each episode of this 12-part journey through a disease state contains both a physician guide and a downloadable/printable patient resource. "Medical Journeys" chart a path each step of the way for physicians and patients and provide continual resources and support, as the caregiver team navigates the course of a disease.