Digestive System Responses
Post a substantive comment or question (minimum of 100 words) that contributes to the discussion on two other students posts.
Each response post to another student should include at least 1 professional, peer reviewed, current (within 5 years) journal article reference 1. Ulcerative colitis is a disease with unknown etiology categorized by inflammation of the mucosa and submucosa of the colon and rectum lining, causing ulcers to develop (Kaur & Goggolidou, 2020).
This is a common diagnosis in the healthcare field. Clinical manifestations include diarrhea, abdominal pain, rectal pain, weight loss, urgency, rectal bleeding, and fever (Pinto et al., 2021).
While many of these symptoms may be present not all have to be in order to be diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
Methods of diagnoses include
lab tests such as blood and stool studies, colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy, r-rays and CT scans (Li et al., 2021). Unfortunately, while there is no definitive cure for this disease there are treatments that can lessen the symptoms.
Possible treatments include medication regimens such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressants. Another option is a proctocolectomy to remove the entire colon and rectum resulting in a possible stoma or ileoanal anastomosis so the individual may get rid of waste in a relatively normal way (Kaur & Goggolidou, 2020). Individuals with this disease have struggles while trying to manage their daily lives with some kind of normalcy. Some dietary suggestions that might help include limiting daily products, drinking an adequate amount of fluids and eating small meals. References: Kaur, A., & Goggolidou, P. (2020). Ulcerative colitis: understanding its cellular pathology could provide insights into novel therapies. Journal of Inflammation (London, England), 17, 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12950-020-00246-4 (Links to an external site.) Li, W., Sun, Y., Dai, L., Chen, H., Yi, B., Niu, J., Wang, L., Zhang, F., Luo, J., Wang, K., Guo, R., Li, L., Zou, Q., Ma, Z. S., & Miao, Y. (2021). Ecological and network analyses identify four microbial species with potential significance for the diagnosis/treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). BMC Microbiology, 21(1), 138. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-021-02201-6 Pinto, S., Loddo, E., Paba, S., Favale, A., Chicco, F., Onali, S., Usai, P., & Fantini, M. C. (2021). Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis patient-reported outcomes signs and symptoms for the remote management of inflammatory bowel disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 5(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41687-021-00323-z 2. Cirrhosis of the liver is irreversible damage to the liver resulting in scar tissue that keeps the liver from working properly. This leads to many other chronic health issues such as clotting factors making patients prone to bruising/ uncontrolled bleeding, jaundice, ascites, fatigue and even confusion from the build up of ammonia in the blood. It is most commonly cause by alcohol abuse but can also be from IV drug use, obesity, hepatitis and uncontrolled diabetes (Wan-Ju LIN et al., 2018). Because this disease is incurable it is really important o educate at risk patients about the severity of this disease.
The symptoms can be managed with medical treatment but often times it is painful and patients end up in the hospital frequently.
To slow the progression of the cirrhosis patients need to stop drinking alcohol and taking hepatotoxic medications.
Cirrhosis is often diagnosed from lab work such as the liver function enzymes and diagnostic testing such as CT or MRI’s. A biopsy can be
completed to confirm the diagnosis and know the extent of the damage to the liver (Xu Ji, 2018). Often times patient have irreversible damage to the liver before they begin to notice any symptoms. early symptoms can be fatigue, unexpected weight loss, nausea vomiting, etc.