Diagnostic and therapeutic methods of inflammatory bowel disease

systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To carry out a systematic review of articles published in the last decade, aiming at research on diagnostic and therapeutic methods of inflammatory bowel diseases. Method: Studies published from 2014 to 2019 were selected. The keywords used were “Ulcerative Colitis”, “Crohn’s Disease”, “Diagnosis” and “Therapeutics”. The databases consulted were MedLine, SciELO and Science Direct. Results: 102 articles were selected, in which 92 of them met the exclusion criteria, leaving ten articles within the inclusion criteria, where three articles were taken from MedLine, three from SciELO and four from Science Direct, in Spanish (1), Portuguese (1) and English (8). Seven articles were found on both IBD (Ulcerative Colitis and Chron’s Disease), one article only on Ulcerative Colitis and two articles only on Chron’s Disease, with six articles citing diagnostic methods of Ulcerative Colitis and eight reported therapeutic alternatives, while seven articles analyzed diagnostic methods for Chron’s Disease and nine reported therapeutic options. Conclusion: Analysis of the literature shows that for the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease it is necessary that it be based on anamnesis and physical examination in an impeccable way, making it difficult to identify positive cases of the disease in its initial stages for a better prognosis of the patient. There is currently an acceptable amount of medication, the treatment is done only for remission of symptoms since there is currently no cure for inflammatory bowel disease and is based on various types of agents such as aminosalicylates, immunomodulators and biological agents. It is not yet possible to achieve a cure, as there is no complete understanding of the pathophysiology or even the functioning of some drugs currently used.