Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about inflammatory bowel disease.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero tofinals.com slash IBD

or in the gastroenterology section of the Zero to Finals pediatrics book. So let's get straight into it.

Inflammatory bowel disease is an umbrella term for the two main diseases that cause

inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, ulstiv colitis and Crohn's disease.

They both involve inflammation in the walls of the gastrointestinal tract

and are associated with periods of remission and exacerbation of the disease.

Crohn's and ulcerative colitis have key features that are distinct from each other

and these features are often tested in exams.

And these are some pneumonics to help you remember which features belong to which condition.

The features that are characteristic of Crohn's disease, and you can remember these with

the mnemonic, crows nests, where nests is the mnemonic, N stands for no blood or mucus, as blood and mucus are less common in Crohn's

disease. E is for entire gastrointestinal tract. S is for skip lesions, which are seen on endoscopy.

T is for terminal ilium, which is most affected, and transmural, which means full thickness inflammation,

and S is for smoking is a risk factor. You don't want to set the nest on fire.

Crohn's is also associated with weight loss, strictures and fistulas.

Next, ulcerative colitis can be remembered with the numonic U-C close-up,

UC-meaning ulcerative colitis, and close-up is the pneumonic.

C is for continuous inflammation because there aren't skip lesions like there are in Crohn's disease.

L is for limited to the colon and rectum.

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