Treatment Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease With Biologics

This book is a concise yet comprehensive overview of the use of biologics for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The volume details how best to utilize these medications in order to optimize their efficacy and safety, as well as how to understand, recognize, and treat complications that may arise from using biologics to treat IBD. The text also focuses on new data, novel biologics, and biosimilars of this rapidly expanding field. Written by experts in the field, Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Biologics is a valuable resource for gastroenterologists, allied health professionals, fellows, and trainees who treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

This book is a concise yet comprehensive overview of the use of biologics for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The volume details how best to utilize these medications in order to optimize their efficacy and safety, as well as how to understand, recognize, and treat complications that may arise from using biologics to treat IBD. The text also focuses on new data, novel biologics, and biosimilars of this rapidly expanding field. Written by experts in the field, Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Biologics is a valuable resource for gastroenterologists, allied health professionals, fellows, and trainees who treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

By the time this issue of Gastroenterology Clinics of North America is released, it will have been 16 years since infliximab was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn disease. Not only have we come a long way in understanding the efficacy and safety of infliximab, we are beginning to understand how and when to use the drug. Furthermore, as of this writing, we have five other biologic agents approved for either Crohn disease or ulcerative colitis, and there are many more molecules currently in drug development for these indications. In this issue,the Editors have assembled a collection of experts to provide the most cutting-edge information on the status of biologic therapy for inflammatory bowel disease.

SERIES OVERVIEW: The Oxford American Pocket Notes are a series of ultra-concise, small-format books for healthcare professionals on topics related to the diagnosis, treatment and management of various medical conditions. Each title typically features an outline of key points, guidelines and tools such as patient assessments and treatment algorithms, for a specific area of medical diagnosis and/or management. Highly practical in format, content and style, the Pocket Notes serve as a quick, easily accessible point-of-care reference for busy practitioners. In effect, they are miniature versions of the Oxford American Medical Library and Oxford American Handbooks in Medicine, capturing the key essentials needed for appropriate assessment and treatment. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a gastrointestinal condition which causes inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract. This disease affects an estimated one million Americans, usually in the forms of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). These two diseases have similar symptoms and are often confused for one another. Crohn's disease can occur anywhere in the digestive tract, often spreading deep into the layers of affected tissues, but ulcerative colitis usually affects only the innermost lining (mucosa) of the large intestine and rectum. IBD patients suffer from severe diarrhea and abdominal pain, and may experience other complications, such as arthritis and kidney stones, that affect the body beyond the intestinal tract. The Oxford American Pocket Notes: Biologics in Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a practical guide to the safe administration of biological agents to treat inflammatory gastrointestinal illnesses. This ultra-concise and practical volume focuses on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocking therapy (TNF blocker), an important new class of biologic therapy indicated for the treatment of several rheumatic and other auto-immune disorders, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This uniquely compact and affordable book features evidence-based discussion and guidelines on the mechanism of action, dosing, administration and safety considerations for the biologic agents approved to treat CD and UC, thus providing practicing physicians with easily accessible tools and insights on the use of these drugs in a daily practice setting. Culled from the pages of Handbook of Biological Therapy, this portable guide is a valuable resource for gastroenterologists, primary care physicians and other healthcare providers involved in the management of these chronic but treatable diseases.

The treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has posed a major challenge since its appearance. Biomedical researchers, physicians, gastroenterologists, and surgeons have struggled to improve the quality of life of their patients and have sought, above all else, to keep the disease under remission for as long as possible. Blockers for tumoral necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were the first biological drugs to be discovered and for this reason they played a crucial role in the subsequent evolution of IBD treatment. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of such drugs and the latest developments in IBD immunopathology. Our contributors discuss the main indications, efficacy, and possible side effects of the different types of drugs available today for IBD treatment.

Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Endoscopic Management and Treatment of Complications covers the preparation, principle, techniques, and damage control of complications in endoscopic therapy, providing the ultimate guidance in endoscopic management of IBD. With contributions from a panel of international leading experts in the field, perspectives are included from GI pathologists, GI radiologists, gastroenterologists, advanced endoscopists, IBD specialists and colorectal surgeons. Recommendations from experts are also included within each chapter. By bridging medical and surgical treatment modalities for IBD, this is the perfect reference for GI researchers, medical students, therapeutic GI endoscopists, IBD specialists, surgeons and advanced health care providers. Incorporates state-of-the-art of research in the area of therapeutic endoscopy in Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Makes the connection between the understanding of the complex nature and disease course of IBD with corresponding advanced endoscopic procedures Explores endoscopic treatment as the missing link between medical and surgical treatment for complex Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis Contains access to videos demonstrating important procedural concepts

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease remain a great therapeutic challenge to the medical community. In recent years knowledge about the pathogenesis of these diseases has progressed rapidly but the cause of the diseases remains completely unknown. It has become clear that dysregulation of the mucosal immune system is the basis for the chronic evolution of the diseases in a genetically susceptible population. Exciting new therapeutic approaches have been attempted in the last couple of years and cytokine and anti-cytokine treatments in particular seem very promising, especially in intractable disease. The format of the Falk Symposium 106 on `Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases', held in Brussels, Belgium, June 18-20, 1998, was somewhat innovative as each session attempted to link the new insights into pathogenetic mechanisms with new therapeutic approaches, resulting in optimal information transfer. The classic therapeutic schemes were updated with a special focus on step-wise build-up of therapy.

Are you looking for concise, practical answers to questions that are often left unanswered by traditional IBD references? Are you seeking brief, evidence-based advice for complicated cases or complications? Curbside Consultation in IBD: 49 Clinical Questions provides quick and direct answers to the thorny questions commonly posed during a "curbside consultation" between colleagues. Dr. David Rubin, Dr. Sonia Friedman and Dr. Francis A. Farraye have designed this unique reference, which offers expert advice, preferences, and opinions on tough clinical questions commonly associated with IBD. The unique Q&A format provides quick access to current information related to IBD with the simplicity of a conversation between two colleagues. Numerous images, diagrams, and references are included to enhance the text and to illustrate IBD. Curbside Consultation in IBD: 49 Clinical Questions provides information that high-volume clinicians will appreciate, and yet is basic enough for residents. Gastroenterologists, fellows and residents in training, surgical attendings, and surgical residents will benefit from the user-friendly and casual format and the expert advice contained within. Some of the questions that are answered: - Which patients might be better for a "top down" approach (using anti-TNF therapy before steroids or proven failure of oral thiopurines)? What clinical behavior or serological markers might you use to identify these patients? - When is it appropriate to switch to another biologic therapy? - Should I be using chromoendoscopy in my surveillance colonoscopy in IBD? How and which agent? Would narrow band imaging be an alternative for this? - Can we follow flat low-grade dysplasia? Is any dysplasia really flat or just a spectrum of depth and size? - If women continue infliximab therapy during pregnancy, what are the implications for the baby? What should we be telling our patients about vaccinations?